Life is but a dream
by Demi.T. Greca
Summary: Tony is constantly afraid of losing his family. He tries to not let his fear ruin his life and just enjoy what he has. Is his fear irrational or is someone trying to take them away? Life is but a dream but some times it's like a bad dream. Follow Tony as he finds it out. Sequel to "The not so simple life of Anthony Stark"
1. Nightmares

_**Author's note: This is a sequel to 'The not so simple life of Anthony Stark'. You may want to read it just to get an idea of what's going on.**_

**_The story is rated M for later chapters._**

* * *

_Nightmares_

_Tony woke up as JARVIS was announcing the dawn of the new day. He stretched himself and caressed the mattress finding it odd to be sleeping in the middle of the bed, alone. _

"_Jarvis, where's Pepper?" Tony asked while getting up._

"_You may find some in the kitchen but our supplies are generally low. Would you like me to order some?" the voice with the British accent said making Tony laugh._

"_Really funny Jarvis, I didn't realize you were capable of humor. Now, please, tell me where Pepper is." Tony repeated as he was dressing up._

"_Sir, I have already answered you, you may want to alter your question." The A.I said. Tony fumed for a moment but tried again. Really this thing needed upgrade._

"_Ok, Jarvis, would you please tell me where my wife is?" he said putting on a T-shirt and heading down to the kitchen. Getting out of the room he startled by the silence. "Maybe she has taken the kids outside." He told himself but Jarvis interrupted his thought._

"_But, Sir, you are not married and don't have any children." The electronic butler said._

"_Very funny, Jarvis, did Millie programmed you to tell me that?" Tony said as he reached the living room. He found himself surprised again seeing the place tidied up and in perfect order. Maybe Pepper decided to get all the toys back in the room. He let that thought linger in his head as he headed to the kitchen._

"_Millie, sir? Was that the girl you brought in last night? I was pretty sure I heard you call her Virginia." Jarvis said._

"_Of course I called her Virginia, you stupid piece of machinery. There's only one girl entering my bedroom the last five years and that's my wife Virginia Potts, or shall I say now, Virginia Stark, best known as Pepper?" he said grinning like a fool._

"_Oh" Jarvis's reply was._

"_Yes, remembered now? Maybe I need to change your memory card. Where is everybody anyway? Did Pepper took the kids and went over to Millie's?" Tony said trying to find his favourite mug. It was a red one with Iron man on it that said Iron daddy. He had a matched T-shirt too._

"_Sir, would you like me to call Colonel Rhodey?" Jarvis asked._

"_No, I don't want Platypus, I want you to tell me where my family is." Tony said losing his temper. Where the hell was that mug? And all the other stuff as a matter of fact. The bowls, the baby's bottles, Peppers mug etc._

"_Sir, you have no family." Jarvis said in his cold tone making him freeze._

"_You are alone." The A.I repeated._

"_Did you catch a virus, Jarvis? Of course I have a family." Tony said in a worried tone. He turned to around to face a plane grey fridge that should be full of children's drawings. _

"_Where are the drawings?" he wondered and flew out of the kitchen trying to find their family pictures._

"_My wedding photo, Edward's birth picture, Millie's video on Marie's birthday. Jarvis play that video." Tony commanded frustrated trying to hide his panic. _

"_Sir, there is no such video. Did you take your pill last night?"_

"_What pill? Jarvis stop playing with me, where's Pepper." Tony yelled now really angry._

"_Your pulses are raising, I'm calling dr. Stane." Jarvis said and Tony's eyes went wide. Stane? Stane had been dead for over six years, now. Who the hell was Jarvis calling?_

"_Who is dr. Stane?" _

"_He is your psychiatrist, sir." Jarvis answered. Tony felt like he was drowning. Something was wrong. He ran to the door in an attempt to get out but instead the door opened and Happy got in closing the door behind him._

"_Happy, oh thank God you're here 'cause Jarvis is driving me crazy." Tony said but the smile on his driver's face did not make him feel comfortable._

"_Do not worry Mr. Stark, everything is ok, nobody is going to heart you, Dr. Stane will be here in a few minutes." Happy said in a calm and steady tone like one would talk to a mad man._

"_Oh, no you too, Happy! Where's Pepper?" He asked again in panic. Happy grabbed him by the arms and looked straight into his eyes._

"_Boss, look at me and listen to me very carefully. There is no Pepper Potts, alright? There is no such woman." He said making Tony jump like he had been hit by a lightning. _

"_Are you kidding me, Hogan?" Tony said in a low voice._

"_She lives here!" he screamed. "She's my wife! The mother to my three beautiful children! You've know her for the last fifteen years!" Tony yelled. "She has red hair and blue eyes, she always wears those pencil skirts that are damn hot, walking with those high heels that take my breath off, and she's bossy and she's wonderful and she's my whole life!" Now Tony was really furious. What twisted kind of game were they playing?_

"_She doesn't exist, Sir, she is not real. She is a figment of your imagination. Remember? After your kidnap?" Happy tried to reason with him. Tony looked at him petrified and ran away like his life was depending on it. He ran down to his workshop finding none of his suits. The hot rod was neglected and the huge family car he had bought was no there._

"_No, no, no, no, no, no!" this was his life, how could it not be real?_

_He ran from bench to bench, he searched in every drawer he had, in every cabinet looking for a proof. A proof that his life was not a lie._

"_Aha! Found it!" he yelled holding a photo victoriously. _

"_Found what, Tony?" a long lost voice was heard. Tony looked at him horrified. It was Stane himself, raised from the grave._

"_What are you doing here? You're dead!" Tony said very seriously and jumped down from the bench._

"_If I was dead would I be standing here with you, Tony?" Stane said getting closer, leaving his briefcase on a bench._

"_I killed you myself." Tony hissed._

"_Now, why would you do such a thing?" he asked completely calm. Tony kept a safe distance trying to estimate the situation._

"_No particular reason, you just tried to kill me and take over my father's company." Tony said looking around nervously trying to find a way to get rid of Stane once for all._

"_I see your sarcasm has not abandoned you, that's a good sign, but I never tried to kill you, Tony, let alone take over your company. What do I know of such things? I am just a doctor." Stane said getting his hands up in the air in a proof of innocence._

_Tony smirked. So, there was a conspiracy here._

"_Just tell me how you hacked Jarvis. Happy, I can get, all though I trusted him and thought he would take a bullet over me, I get how you can corrupt him, but my own A.I? It takes a lot of genius." Tony said taking a step forward._

"_Exactly, think Tony, is there anyone smarter than you? Could anyone hack into your system and make all this? Disappear your whole life?" Stane said getting dangerously close._

_Tony thought for a moment. He thought it was impossible but apparently it wasn't. Because if it was his whole life had been a lie and that couldn't just be. He had a picture._

"_Your trick won't work Stane. Pepper is as real as me." He said and Stane noticed the picture in his hand._

"_You think that picture is real Tony?" he asked and Tony snorted. Off it was, he had had it for years. It was from the first ball Pepper accepted on escorting him. She looked beautiful that night and he had a photographer taking her picture while she wasn't looking. He kept it secret all these years._

"_Take a better look." Stane proposed and Tony looked at the picture again. His hands trembled. It was a collage, not a picture._

"_Where's the photo, Obi? What have you done with Pepper? Where is she? What do you want?" Tony demanded to know._

"_I want you to be healthy, Tony. Pepper is not a real person. Pepper is a ghost, a creature of your imagination, a holographic program you were making before your trip to Afghanistan. I don't know what terrible things you went through but when you got off that plane, you were talking to nowhere referring to Pepper. Want to see I am right, command Jarvis to run the program Pepper." Stane said looking less than friendly._

_Tony was afraid. He was afraid that Stane was right. He would go completely insane some day; everybody said so, so it wasn't hard to believe. He didn't deserve a life like that anyway, but how could it all be a lie?_

"_Jarvis?"_

"_Yes, Sir."_

"_Run Pepper." Tony whispered hoping the A.I wouldn't catch it._

"_Good day, Mr. Stark, would you like me to inform you about today's meetings?" the very voice of Pepper Potts said and Tony turned around to face her with a huge grin on his face, but his face soon fell once he met his familiar figure in a holographic form._

"_Pepper?"_

"_Yes, Mr. Stark?"_

"_Are you real?"_

"_No, Mr. Stark I am an A. I like Jarvis, you made me." The hologram answered._

"_This can't be, there's a conspiracy, you are behind this!" Tony yelled angry and marched to Stane._

"_Where are my wife and kids, Stane? Where is my family?" Tony shouted grabbing Stane by the collar ready to punch him._

"_It's all a dream, Tony, nothing's real." Stane said injecting him something into his main vein. Instantly Tony lost his strength and let Stane fall. He tried holding on to the bench but his hands slipped and he fell down facing the hologram of Pepper that looked very real now._

"_Pepper." He whispered trying to touch her._

"_Nothing is real, Tony. You are all alone." Stane whispered in his ear._

"_Would that be all, Mr. Stark?" Pepper asked slowly vanishing from his view._

"_Pepper, no, don't leave me."_

"_Would that be all, Mr. Stark?" she repeated like a light breeze._

"Pepper!" Tony screamed as he woke up facing two very comforting blue eyes while he felt her hands on his face.

"Tony, wake up, I'm right here, you're home, you're safe." She repeated trying to calm him down. Tony jumped up hugging her tight to make sure she was real.

"It's alright, Tony, everything's fine, now." She whispered in his ear. "Another nightmare?" she asked and he nodded. He had been having nightmares since he had come back from Afghanistan but lately they were increasing both in frequency and intensity. She had realized it had more to do with his missions nowadays than his hard time during his kidnap and that was what made her worry the most. She had learned to deal with it and calm him down but it was killing her to see him tortured b his own mind.

"Care to share?" she asked never leaving his embrace.

"It was bad, really bad." Tony said. He was aware of his nightmares and Pepper's worry about them. She had a point there as he rarely let her sleep lately. He was worried too, because they kept filling his mind with dark ideas and he didn't like that. It was like he was going mad. In the past he wouldn't discuss his problem with her but since the priest said together in sickness and in health Pepper demanded to know everything and he felt better when he succumbed to her will.

"I was here, in our house but you weren't here. I tried to find you and then Stane came out of nowhere telling me you're a figment of my imagination. He told me you were not real, none of this was." Tony said burying his face down her neck.

Pepper stroke his back and kissed his shoulder. "I assure you I am very real." Pepper said and smiled against his shoulder. They stayed like this for a moment or two not blinking an eye until a child's scream alarmed them both.

"Edward Anthony Stark you better bring that back because you won't live to see another day!" a very angry Mildred was heard.

"As it is that." She added and got off him to meet with any crisis that was going on in the kitchen.

Tony fell back enjoying the voices coming from downstairs.

"Jarvis, what's going on?" he asked the A.I

"Your children are awake, Sir, I think it says it all." Jarvis said making Tony laugh.

"I guess you are capable of sarcasm after all." he said before getting up to help Pepper dealing with their little monsters.


	2. The Stark Kids

The Stark Kids

Pepper got down nearly crashing upon her five year old son who was running screaming his lungs out. Behind him came Millie followed by Marie who was also screaming and Logan who was crawling. The small group passed by her like a hurricane and vanished. She followed them to the living room where they kept fighting over something she couldn't quite catch. Finally she decided to talk.

"Mildred and Edward Stark." She said in her business voice nice and calm making them stop. Everyone knew what Pepper Potts meant by using her business tone and she meant… business. Period.

All four of the children looked at her and they stepped into a line as she moved her finger for them to approach. It was kind of funny really, especially seeing little Logan mimicking them and sitting next to his sister, Marie.

"Now, can I find out why you are yelling and running around the house at half past seven in the morning?" she said crossing her arms in front of her chest. Edward swallowed hard and looked up to Millie narrowing his eyes at her.

"I just wanted to play…" Edward said in that tone that showed he had done something wrong, he knew it and he was trying to get away with it. It was a thing he had taken from Tony.

"You don't play with this kind of things!" Millie yelled at him.

"It's just a phone!"

"It's my phone!" she said and they started fighting again.

Tony got down closing his ears.

"Hey, hey, hey!" he yelled making quite an appearance.

"Daddy!" Marie said and ran into his arms. Tony raised her up and hold her kissing her good morning. Logan, their baby crawled to Pepper who picked him up, surprised he wasn't stepped over by his siblings with all this mess.

"Yeah, sorry about leaving Logan out of his seat; I was kind of distracted." Millie said.

Pepper kissed the baby and handed him over to Tony who left Marie down.

"Now, I want to know what happened with no screams and accusations. Mildred?"

Pepper said giving them her professional smile. Mildred swallowed hard and looked at her father. Being the oldest she knew what professional Pepper Potts meant and she didn't like meeting with her; motherly Pepper, now that was something everyone enjoyed, especially Tony.

"Just because I'm older…." She tried to fill her with guilt but didn't quite work for this sort of things.

"I think I can talk better with a twenty three year old who runs the Engineering department of Stark Industries than a five year old who hasn't gone to school yet." Pepper said.

"Tony used to run the company…" Millie argued.

"Hey, watch your language kid." Tony said trying to support Pepper.

"I'm not a kid."

"You are acting like one, both of you. Now, please, tell me what happened and tell me the world won't come crashing down because of it." Pepper said frustrated.

"Ok." Mildred said crossing her arms looking very much like Pepper.

"We were in the kitchen eating breakfast and Ed asked to play with my cell- phone. I told him it's not a toy, then we had an argument about how Tony lets him play with his cell- phone when they are out of the house and just when I was about to put Logan in his park, Ed grabbed my phone. That's when the whole screaming and running started." She said looking sorry for waking up the couple. She was there to give them more time together not wake them up like that.

"All that over a phone?" Tony wondered playing with his baby son.

"It's my phone! And the world may not have crashed but one wrong button and the thunderbird is out of its nest running through the city driven by a five year old." Millie said making her point. Pepper sighed and looked at Ed. There are times she doesn't know how to handle these kids.

"Ok, Edward, give the phone back to your sister and never, ever take it again, understood?" Pepper said and the little boy nodded. He apologized to Millie and gave her the device. Millie kneeled down hugging saying it was ok but next time she will not be so soft. Pepper smiled and took the kids back to the kitchen to make herself and Tony breakfast.

"There are pancakes in the oven!" Mildred yelled at her back.

Tony was shocked by the statement and turned around to face his eldest.

"You made pancakes?"

"Yes, I made pancakes." She said heading to the kitchen too.

"I love pancakes." Tony said.

"I know." Millie replied.

"So, you made pancakes for me?" Tony asked grinning.

"No, I made pancakes for me." She said and went to help Pepper with Logan.

Tony stood by the entrance and looked at them. Millie was hard but she was a great kid and whatever she said they were very much alike and she loved him deeply. Maybe she was afraid all this was a dream and that she would wake up one morning being completely alone. Maybe she and Tony shared a common fear that made them bond even more. There were times Pepper had that fear too, but looking at them now, they were more real than they would ever be. How could they be just a dream?

"Mum, can we go to the pool?" Little Marie asked. Pepper thought for a moment and then nodded saying they should ask their father too. Tony was more than thrilled with the idea and took the little ones upstairs to put on bathing suits.

The kids' room was a door next to the master bedroom. They had decided it was better keeping them all in the same room as long as they were little so they could watch them better but now that Ed was about to start elementary school they were adjusting one of the guestrooms to make his own space.

Tony opened the door and walked to the small room leaving Logan on his bed. The room was small for Tony's style but it was generally comfortable. It was painted in an emerald green just because Pepper believed it was soothing and Tony had to admit she was right. It had big windows letting the light in and a hi-tech wall that allowed the kids to express their creativity without Pepper freaking out. The baby's crib was on the right as the beds of Marie and Ed were on the left. Next to the door was the wardrobe.

"Ok, now where are the bathing suits?" Tony wondered.

"they are in the last drawer." Edward said being right behind him. Tony smiled at his son and opened the last drawer as he had said. Ed had taken Pepper's organizing side and could tell you where every little thing was in the house even if there was chaos. However his resemblance to Pepper ended there, everything else was pure Tony. His hair, his eyes, the way he talked, the things he liked, his talent to get into trouble, all though that was a talent all Stark kids seemed to have. Edward liked cars and he liked spending time in the workshop with his dad or Millie. Tony believed that with the right approach his son could prove to be a genius after all, like his dad.

"Want the blue one or the red one?" Tony asked him.

"The red one." Ed answered and took it disappearing in the bathroom. He was a bit shy too. That one he got from Pepper.

"Ok, let's see about Logan." Tony said but a cough made him turn around. He saw Marie tapping her foot furiously against the floor giving him the Potts glare.

"Oh, honey, is there something I can help you with?" he said trying to suppress his grin. Marie was pure Pepper when she was acting like that and she was acting like that a lot.

"I don't get a bathing suit?" she said in that adorable voice of hers which made it hard for Tony to distinguish when she was being sweet and when she was being bossy.

"Oh, sorry, sweetheart I didn't realize you wanted to get to the pool too." Tony said trying to be serious. "I told mum you would stay in, today."

Marie's blue eyes went wide in shock for a moment before realizing something was wrong and smirked, giving Tony a taste of his own smirk.

"You didn't talk to mommy before we came upstairs." She said making Tony raise his hands in surrender.

"Guilty." He admitted making her jump victoriously.

Marie was very competitive, like her mother and really, really bossy, especially with her dad. Unlike her brother she had shown her intelligence since the day she started talking and she liked to show it off, a lot. She was really observant for a four year old and she loved solving puzzles as well as pretending to be a business woman.

"Which one?" Tony asked.

"The yellow one." She answered.

"Wanna help you put it on?" Tony said and she nodded.

A thing Pepper didn't like about her daughter was how dependant she was on her father. There was a love there, that much was obvious, but Tony spoiled her too much and that was not good.

"You're ready princess." Tony said caressing her brown hair. When Marie was born he had hopped she had Pepper's hair. He had wanted a miniature of his wife to run around the house but even though she had Pepper's eyes and Pepper's nose, her hair was becoming darker and darker.

"Thank you daddy; do you want me to help you with Logan?" Marie asked and Tony was nodded.

It wasn't he didn't get along with his youngest it was the baby state he didn't get along. Babies seemed to not like him.

"Ok, Logan Philippe Stark, don't move and don't pie on your dad." Tony said making Marie laugh.

"he doesn't like the red t-shirt, he likes the green one." Marie informed her dad who was picking out T-shirts.

"I guess it matches his hair. Got a sense of style, already, little man?" Tony said as he changed him. Logan was the only one of his children with red hair. It was in the exact same shade as Pepper's and he was really white like her, so they had to be very careful with the sun. When he was born, his eyes had been blue but much to Tony's disappointment they had turned brown after a few days. They couldn't quite get to whom he looked like but he seemed to analyze everything all the time like he was making a plan or something. Pepper used to tell Tony that their one year old was not an evil genius that meant to take over the world but she couldn't convince him. This baby would one day take over the universe; he just hoped it was in a good way.

"All set, hey hot shot, need any help?" Tony yelled knocking on the bathroom door.

"Uhm, I could use some help." Edward said and Tony got in to help him dress.

Finally after a few minutes they showed up in the pool where Millie and Pepper where having a conversation next to the water. Ed and Marie ran to their own small pool as Tony left the baby in his plastic one and lay by it enjoying his coffee and pancakes.

Millie called the kids to the big pool, promising she would watch after them and Pepper sat next to Tony stealing a pancake from his hand.

"Hey!"

"I'm hungry." Pepper said smiling.

"There's a whole pile in the plate." Tony argued.

"mmm, it tastes better on your hand." She said smirking.

"Was that a …." He said but was cut off by Edward who called them to see him dive.

"I hope Millie knows what she's doing." Tony said grabbing another pancake from the plate.

"Don't worry; she is very responsible when it comes to them." Pepper said sipping her coffee.

"You think? Because you didn't look very happy in there." Tony said referring to the phone incident.

"Well, she tends to act childish sometimes and she's possessive over certain things but I dealt with it before and I could deal with it now if it had nothing to do with the young ones or if I was her mother…"

"Don't be absurd, Pepper, you are her mother." Tony said. He liked to think his family as one, big happy family with two parents and four kids. As long as he was concerned Pepper had stood like a mother to Millie more than any real mother would have, more than he had, and Millie knew that too.

"No, Tony, I am not her mother and I feel bad when I yell at her about things that have to do with family and not the company." Pepper said in a sad voice. She was always afraid the "You are not my mother." line would come out of Mildred's mouth eventually. The truth was they had more of a - best friends- relationship than a mother and daughter. It couldn't have been different; she had been eighteen when they met and she had a hard time accepting the fact that Tony was her father or that she had a family. Pepper understood that. She had seen that before, on Tony. When you spent a whole life believing you are alone, it's difficult to realize there's someone out there who cares about you.

"Now, Potts, I thought you were a smart woman. You have been a mother to Pepper more than anyone, more than I have been a father to her and she knows that. She would prefer you over me any time of the day." Tony said sipping his espresso.

"Now you are been foolish, Stark. As much as I hate to admit and even though the last thing you need is an ego boost, the truth is, all four of them think of you as a god, especially Marie." Pepper said snatching the last pancake before him.

Tony smirked and sat up to leave his cup on the table.

"What about you, Mrs. Stark?" He liked the sound of it.

"Do I think of you as a god?" Pepper smiled putting her cup down as well.

"No." she said making him raise an eyebrow.

"You're more of a big kid who likes playing with big, dangerous toys…" she said making him smirk. "…and he is dangerously handsome…" she said kissing him softly on the lips. "and I love him to beats." She said smiling against his face making him smile too.

"I love you too, Potts." He said and they were brought back to reality by a crying Logan.

Pepper got up to sooth him down and joined him in the plastic pool so he was not alone.

"Talking about the kids, when are you going to tell Millie we are making her CEO?" Pepper asked Tony.

"How about tonight, after we put the youngsters to bed and before she leaves?" Tony suggested and Pepper nodded.

"As long as nobody calls you in." she said and the phone rang to her answer.

Tony sighed reaching for it.

"Oh, Banner." He said and he looked happier by the moment. Luckily, it was not a mission.

"Actually, I can't come today. We are having a family Sunday, I'll come by the tower tomorrow, ok?" he said and hanged up a while after that. He looked towards the pool where they were still having a competition for the best jump and he just couldn't stand there.

"Here comes, daddy!" he screamed and jumped in the water creating a small wave.

"Take it easy, iron head." Millie said as he raised from the water.

* * *

**Thunderbird is a no-driver car that is driven via cell-phone. It's Millie's invention in my Iron man universe. **


	3. Father and daughter

Father and daughter

Millie got down to the garage to get her car. Her younger siblings had been sleeping for a good hour now and Pepper had disappeared in her office claiming she had something to do. She was pretty sure she just wanted to leave her and Tony alone and that never ended well, for Pepper. However, Jarvis informed Millie that Tony was in his workshop, something very strange for a family Sunday. It was a day that usually ended with the couple curled together on the couch watching a movie. That was one more reason for her to get down there.

She typedd the password and got in. Tony was sitting in front his computers working on a new car for Stark Racing cars. It was his latest hobby.

"Hi, Tony." Millie said.

Tony looked at her taking a sip from his scotch.

"Came to kiss daddy goodnight?" he joked making Millie stick out her tongue to him.

"That's rude." Tony said.

"That's how we say goodnight to daddy in Mildred land." Millie said and Tony smirked.

"So, you want to talk to me." Mildred said sitting on the bench beside him.

"Who told you that?" Tony pretended to be surprised.

"Pepper is in her office and you're down here while you should be upstairs watching a movie, so either you had a fight or you want to talk to me." Mildred said finding a gadget and playing with it.

"Don't touch that." Tony said taking the gadget from her hands and turning around to face her. "We could have had a fight." Tony said but Millie didn't bite it.

"Ooook, let's get comfortable." Tony said and got up. Millie followed him walking towards the hot rod. Tony took the passenger's seat letting Mildred seat behind the wheel.

"That's comfortable?" Millie teased him but Tony stretched himself to prove his point.

"It is to me." He argued.

"And how come you sat in the passenger's seat? You never sit there." Millie wondered.

"I've been working on this car since the day I can remember myself. I've been working on it with my dad, then alone, I even had Pepper helping me more than once. I've worked on it with you, Edward is starting to catch up and I will work on it with Logan when the time comes." Tony said caressing the car.

Millie smiled softly. She knew from the first time she saw that hot rod that it was not just a car to Tony. It was his way of bonding with people, his way of telling them he trusted them.

"So, you are never going to finish it." she stated and Tony smirked. This car had helped him get over many things, including his parents' death. It was where his soul would find peace in his dark years.

"This car is my life. If you look close at it you will find marks on it I did as a kid, or calculations, secrets I've written on the most impossible pieces while I was working on it; my life's story." Tony said traveling back to those days where his father would yell at him because he had written the name of his latest girlfriend on the brakes or something like that.

"For many years after my parents' death I believed my father wouldn't have wanted me to run his company. He acknowledged my genius on math and mechanics as well as my talent in destruction. I became CEO because I had to and I believe nobody is surprised when I say I didn't want to. It was something that my father had valued more than me and I really wanted nothing to do with it. However, I did good, no matter what Pepper says, which by the way if it wasn't for her I'm pretty sure we would have failed a long time now." Tony said making Mildred laugh. It wasn't every day that Tony talked serious and opened his heart out, so when he did one had to listen very carefully.

"This hot rod, this wheel, was what reminded me that my dad valued me and trusted me with dangerous staff, it helped me going. Of course later I found out he always trusted me and thought very high of me which at that point saved my life but that has nothing to do with us right now." He said attempting to make the atmosphere lighter.

"So, I'm giving you the wheel of the car now." Tony said leaving Millie completely confused.

"You mean metaphorically, you are giving me the wheel metaphorically." Mildred said raising an eyebrow.

"Yes." Tony said. He knew she would get it; she was super smart after all.

"You… are… giving me the wheel of the company?" Mildred said.

"Pretty much; congratulations, you are the new CEO of the Stark Industries!" Tony said hugging her. Millie stood there for a few moments completely silent.

"What's wrong?" Tony asked her.

"I… can't do that." She said and got out of the car.

"What?" Tony was taken aback and got out of the car too.

"I can't be the CEO of your company." Mildred said looking lost right now.

How could he ask her for something like this? She knew nothing about running a company! She was a mechanic and a freaking good one but a business woman? No, that she was not. Right now she was sure Marie could do a better job than her.

"Don't be ridiculous! I was the CEO for over ten years! I'm sure you will do far better." Tony said putting his hands on her shoulder trying to calm her down.

"Are you kidding me? The reporters are all over me just because my name changed from Candlelight to Stark, imagine what will happen if I become CEO! Then, what if I sign something I am not supposed to or if I invest on something that's really cool but fails?" she started talking nonsense just like Pepper did when she was nervous. Did all women acted like that or just the ones around him?

"Hug, calm down, you are going to be just fine. You are very smart and a lot more responsible than I am, you have been running the Engineers department for the last two years and it's quite a big department to run but you did it just fine and I trust you." Tony said bringing her back to reality.

"Besides, aren't you the girl who wanted to change the world but couldn't? I give you the power to do it now." Tony said and smiled at his daughter taking away the tears on her face. He hated tears. Millie smiled back and hugged him tight.

"I'll do my best, I promise." She mumbled at his chest.

"I know, big girl, you are my daughter after all." He said and got punched on the arm for that. Yep, his girl was back. "Besides, Pepper's staying CTO, so she's going to help you but please keep her from pressure." Tony said taking a step back, releasing Mildred.

"How's staying CTO is going to keep Pepper from pressure?" Millie asked.

"You are going to keep her away from pressure." Tony said getting a bottle of champagne from Dummy and purring some into two glasses. Mildred took one and followed him back to the computers.

"You know Pepper, she would die if she couldn't work so I couldn't make her stay at home and worry about me while I go out saving the world. I can't do that to her but please make sure she has some time for her handsome and superhero husband." Tony said and Mildred grimaced.

"I don't want details on your sex life, Tony." Mildred said and looked at her glass.

"Anything else I should know?" she asked.

"We are going to announce it next week on the board council and Pepper is already working on the reception."

"There's going to be a reception? Can't we just sit here order a few pizzas and say, "Congratulations, Millie?" she said. She really didn't like those kind of staff. She had attended more than enough as a kid to raise money for the orphanage and she just couldn't sell herself anymore.

"Sorry, kid, but being CEO means you're the face of the company. You'll have to attend a lot of that staff in the future but there are a lot of ways to get through the front door and walk straight to the back. I'll teach you." Tony said sitting on a stool. Millie stood across him.

"Will that be all?" Millie said and tasted her champagne.

"Yes, no, wait, there's one more that's very important and I may not have the chance to tell you later." Tony said in a very serious tone. Millie sat on the bench listening to him.

"There's someone out there who is solving mathematical equations on his napkin, while ordering a drink, listening to the news, talking to the guy next to him and thinking about tomorrow's lunch. He would be your friend and do everything for you including getting the trash out, protecting you from anything that can hurt you or your mind such as boring meetings. He's your Personal Assistant and you should find him quickly." Tony said making Mildred laugh.

"Just because you married your P.A doesn't mean we all will." She said leaving the glass on the bench and bending down to kiss his cheek.

"It's been a long day and I have to go. Good night, dad, kiss Pepper for me." She said and left the workshop.

"Giving getting away advices already?" Pepper said sneaking in after Millie had left. She approached Tony and sat on his laps.

"Well, isn't that the good father's job?" Tony said grinning.

"Teaching his kids how to avoid work; that's something only you could think of." Pepper said.

"Only boring things, we mechanics need to be stimulated all the time, we can't afford be in boring situations." Tony said putting his hands lower in her back.

"Like board meetings?"

"Like board meetings."

"And the P.A is the one to save you?"

"The P.A is my superhero, I can't leave without my P.A" he said kissing her shoulder.

"Did I mention Mildred told me to kiss you?" Tony said.

"And as a good father you do what your kids ask." Pepper said with a mischievous smile on her face.

Tony mumbled something incoherent and brought her down to give her a passionate kiss.

Now movie was out of the question.


	4. First time's charm

First time's charm

Being called to the principal's office on your very first day in elementary school, now that was a record even Tony had not broken. However it looked pretty easy for his eldest son, Edward to achieve such a thing.

It would be difficult for him, they knew that. It wasn't that Ed had spent the early years of his life inside the Stark mansion or that he hadn't learned to play with other kids. On the contrary, he liked sharing pretty much everything and had no problem playing with a hundred other kids when they visited the LC Home every other Sunday. It was that he would be completely alone for the first time, even Marie wouldn't be there with him and that would be difficult for her too. So, blowing up the science lab to make an impression and get some friends, was what Tony expected to happen but not on the very first day.

They had called them an hour or two before lunch break. Pepper had been working at home and Tony had been down in his workshop working on his latest obsession, the SRK 8 for the Stark Racing. Once Jarvis informed them they had a phone call from Malibu's Elementary school they both knew what it was about. Pepper was thinking about damage control as she was dressing up while Tony practiced a few lines to charm the headmistress.

"Mr. and Mrs. Stark." The old woman said when the couple entered her office. It was a woman in her sixties, with big glasses and a bun of grey hair on her head. Tony opened his mouth to talk but the old woman raised a hand to stop him and then gestured for them to sit down.

"Mrs. Stark, I am happy to meet you, I am Mrs. Dawson, the headmistress of the school." The woman said and gave her hand to Pepper.

"Nice to meet you too." Pepper said kindly frowning to Tony who seemed to be ignored.

"Does that mean you are not happy to meet me?" Tony said pretending to be hurt but all he got was a severe look. He had no chance of charming her, that was for sure.

"Mrs. Dawson, you called us for Edward, was there a problem?" Pepper asked worried. She was more worried about Tony than her son actually.

"I won't lie to you, Mrs. Stark, the first day at school is difficult for every kid especially when he's so much younger than his classmates."

"He'll turn six in a few weeks." Tony interrupted and got another glare. He felt like he was six years old again and called to this very office for blowing up the science lab; said science lab was blown up again by his son. They had quite a tradition in the family after all.

"I don't know in what kind of environment this kid has been growing up but it's obvious he doesn't understand the hazard of playing in a science lab." Mrs. Dawson said and looked at Tony once again along with Pepper.

That had been his mistake. Time after time Pepper yelled at him he shouldn't get the kids down to the workshop and let them do whatever they wanted unattended. She was alright with him teaching Edward about mechanics or working with him on the hot rod BUT she had made it clear that, iron man gadgets and experimentations were OUT of the question. He may or may have not been listening to that. That was how a very expensive pair of boots ended up destroyed.

"Clever minds need stimulation." Tony said in his son's defense.

"Oh, we are very aware of that Mr. Stark, it seems that our poor lab has been haunted by your family." The old lady said making Pepper frown.

"You must be very proud that your son has surpassed you. Even you waited for a whole week before you showed us your talent in chaos." She said giving him a cold, professional smile. It looked like the one Pepper was giving him whenever he did something wrong.

"You keep files so way back?" Tony said surprised. It had been almost thirty six years ago!

"I don't need a file to remember that chaos, Anthony Stark; I spent two years dealing with it." She said surprising both Starks. Tony leaned over the office and looked at her better. It couldn't be, could it?

She couldn't be… Ms. Patterson, his first and second grade teacher? She was so beautiful with long, black hair and green eyes; said eyes were giving him the same look he used to get from her as a child. God, had he been a pain in the neck back then. Even he admits it.

"Ms. Patterson?" Tony said recognizing her. It couldn't be anyone else; no other teacher had stuck with his class for more than a year. There had been a time they were changing teachers every two months. Yeah, he was not the only one naughty in there.

"Actually, it's Mrs. Dawson, now." She said straightening her back.

"So, you were dating the couch, I owe Davis a bike." Tony said looking at Pepper referring to a childhood bet.

"Tony, behave!" Pepper said making the old woman smirk.

"But, honey, it's Ms. Patterson! She had been my favourite teacher until I left for MIT. I can't believe you're a principal now, remember that time I upgraded your car?" Tony said grinning.

"Of, course I do, Anthony, I crashed with every car in the parking lot as soon as I started the engine." She said not amused. Pepper looked at Tony in wide eyes. She knew what this man was capable of doing but she was now afraid of what she had to deal with in the foreseeable future.

"It reached 200km/h in les than two seconds. I don't know why I got suspended for it, really, you should be thanking me. Other people pay a bunch of money to get cars such that, including me." Tony said very serious.

"I got thirty two lawsuits for that!" the old woman exclaimed.

"If I remember correctly, my father paid for that." Tony said.

"Honestly, Mr. Stark, I wonder how your company is still standing." She said.

"I have the answer to that." Pepper mumbled receiving a full mouth grin by Tony. She smiled softly at him and looked at her clock. She actually had a brief-meeting in less than half an hour and she needed to go home.

"Mrs. Dawson, can we go back to Edward please? Don't be offended but we have busy lives." Pepper said. The old woman nodded and proceeded to list the damages of the lab.

As soon as she finished Tony got up and put on his glasses.

"I'll tell you what, I'll send a crew first thing in the morning and we'll make you a new high-tech lab, would that be ok? And I'll put a label on the door, Stark Lab, just to make amends with the bad spirit of mischief that's haunting the place, how's that?" he said leaving her speechless.

"You should still talk to your son about those flying boots." Mrs. Dawson said and Pepper sighed and touched her head.

"Oh, those boots! I thought I had hid them." Pepper said.

"You can't hide anything from Edward, Pepper, he knows were you put things, besides, he has Marie finding them for him." Tony said and Mrs. Dawson popped her eyes out.

"Marie Elisabeth Stark? I should have imagined she was yours." She said.

"Oh, no." Pepper said.

"Don't worry, Mrs. Stark, she didn't destroy any property of the school. However, maybe you should explain to her the difference between exploration and breaking in." she said.

"What?!" now both Tony and Pepper yelled surprised.

"Their teacher had let them explore the playground and your daughter thought it would be fun to pretend she was in a mission and break in the glass-house on the back of the school." Mrs. Dawson said smiling.

"Is anyone hurt?" Pepper asked.

"No one except for the plans." She re assured her.

"Maybe the teacher should have defined the bounds of the ground that was allowed to be explored." Tony said.

"That was exactly what Marie told Mr. Murray." The headmistress said and dismissed the couple.

"That went good." Tony said on the way to the car.

"Our six year old blew up a lab and our four year old broke into a glass house, yeah that went smooth." Pepper said.

"Well, it's not easy to adjust to an environment with so many rules." Tony said getting the door for her.

"Don't mess with the workshop, don't pick up locks and don't get things blown up, are rules we have at home."

"Relax, Pep, it was their first day." Tony said getting the engine started.

"That's what I'm afraid the most; what will happen next."

"They'll be fine, they're good kids, once they blend in things will go better."

"I know, I guess, first time's charm." Pepper said and smiled as they headed back to the mansion.

As soon as they reached the house, Pepper locked her self up in her office to get to that cyber-brief-meeting. It was something about the new head of the engineers department now that Millie was officially CEO of the company. Tony walked to the kids' room to check on Logan and his nanny.

"How is he?" he asked her and she replied in Italian. Yes, their nanny was Italian and she was an old friend of his mother's. She knew English she just felt more comfortable in her native language and since Tony understood... Well, she used that.

"Ok, you can go if it's an emergency; I'll take care of him." He said and the woman looked at him with eyes wide open .

"_Pepper is in the office, she will be finished in an hour!" _ He said in Italian. The old woman smiled and kissed him before she left.

"Hi there, baby evil genius." He said to his son as he opened his big brown eyes.

"Sir, Mrs. Stark has repeatedly told you not to call the baby that." Jarvis said.

"Oh, come on Jarvis, you wont tell her that, now will you? Remember who upgrades you." Tony said reaching in to caress the baby's red head.

"My memory seems to be short, Sir, maybe I need a new one." The computer said.

"Blackmail, Jarvis? Ok, I thing I have given you a little more intelligence than I needed to." Tony said and picked up Logan.

"How about going to the workshop and watch daddy do some awesome stuff?" Tony said raising him high making him laugh.

"You liked that, didn't you?" he said and shook him.

"Sir, I believe getting young Mr. Stark to your workshop is not a good idea. The possibility of an accident is 70% within the first minutes and raises up to 99% after an hour considering you tend to be absorbed by your work and the baby will be unattended." Jarvis said.

Tony gave it a thought. Yeah, maybe he had a point there. No one would like Logan drowned into safety foam by Dummy or a baby playing with an Iron man gadget that just happened to be lying on the floor forgotten, like half of his inventions.

"Maybe, you are right. Ok, let's take the computer and do a few calculations on the designs then." Tony said and turned to leave but Logan started crying.

"You don't like the idea?" Tony asked him and the baby shook his head stretching his hands towards the shelves.

"You want to play too, that sounds fair. Do you want a teddy bear?" Tony said and grabbed a fluffy puppy that Marie called Toto.

The baby gave the toy a punch and got it on the ground. "Ok, remind me to introduce you to Agent Fury." Tony said getting another toy from the self, a small car. Thinking it twice he put it back. He didn't want him to chock on it.

"Ok, what do you want?" he gave up and got the baby near the self. Logan mumbled a few incoherent words that made no sense as usual and started to touch everything on the self. "God, you're picky." Tony said. At last the baby laughed and got a toy off the self.

"Transformers? Really?" he said and walked out of the room and down to the workshop to get his computer before he settled in the living room putting Logan on the floor. After getting Edward and Marie to the hospital with head injuries he had learned that a carpeted floor is safer than a comfortable sofa. You can't fell off a floor.

He started working on his new F1 model slowly cutting himself off his surroundings and the various sounds his baby son was making while disassembling the toy. It was his favourite activity really, taking things apart. Pepper called it genes and Tony called it curiosity. The truth should be somewhere in the middle.

After a while he felt someone grabbing his jeans.

"Just a moment, Logan, daddy is in the middle of something very important." He said not looking down. For the past few minutes he was trying to solve an equation he had created a month ago about the energy recovery of the car. Logan tacked his jeans once more trying to get attention.

"Dada!" he said in a determined tone smacking Tony's knee.

Tony stopped and looked at the boy frozen.

"What did you say?" Tony asked him not quite sure he had listened an actual word and not some kind of nonsense again. The boy grabbed the toy that was now formed into a robot and pretended it was flying.

"Dada!" he repeated. Tony watched the baby in awe.

"Jarvis, what just happened?"

"I believe, Mr. Logan just said his first word." Jarvis said giving Tony a full mouth grin.

Eddie's first word had been 'mama' and he had lost that due to a mission in Mexico. Marie's first word had been 'suit' and he barely remembers that because he had a concussion, not because of a mission but because of a fight he had had with Rogers. However, now, he was there, fully aware of his surroundings and he had heard it very clearly. 'Dada'; Logan's first word had been 'Dada'.

He grabbed the baby and ran upstairs taking the steps two at a time to reach Pepper's office.

"Pepper, Logan, just said his first word." Tony said entering like a tornado.

"Tony! I'm in the middle of a meeting!" Pepper yelled before realizing what he had told her. "What?" she added.

"His first word! Listen!" Tony said and let Logan talk but the baby was busy playing with the mini robot.

Tony took it away and asked him "Who's that?"

"Dada!" the baby cried and he took the toy back.

Pepper was stunned forgetting all about the four people that were waiting online. She got up and walked to them caressing her sons red hair.

"Oh, my God!" she said.

"Dada, you heard too right?" Tony said grinning from ear to ear.

"I heard it, big daddy, I guess he's not such an evil genius after all." She said kissing Logan's head.

"Oh, he is, he totally is, but he likes me more than I thought, I think he actually may love me after that." Tony said tickling him.

"I don't think there's anyone who can resist you, Mr. Stark." Pepper said and she heard several people coughing on through the speakers.

"The meeting." She said and got back to her office apologizing for the interruption. Tony walked out of the office thinking what to do next to celebrate his success.

"Jarvis, call Rhodey." He said playing with Logan as he got down the stairs.

Tony spent the rest of the day trying to get words from Logan. He had managed to teach him say 'mama', 'Ed', 'Dummy' and 'car'. When Ed and Marie came back from school, Pepper made him give them a big lecture. He didn't actually like doing things like that, not that Pepper did but she had fifteen years of experience on lecturing… him. He just didn't have it in him; he was the funny parent, the clown, the toymaker. That was why Pepper insisted he should be the one lecturing them about stuff as serious as explosions. When the funny man is not laughing any more then things are serious and they had to know that.

It didn't take long actually but he really didn't like it, especially the punishment thing.

"Oh, and you're both grounded." He said trying to sound as serious as possible.

"What?" Eddie and Marie said in one voice.

"You are going to help me clean up the workshop…" Tony said thinking it was more of a self punishment than a lesson to those two.

"Cleaning?" they both said and got their puppy faces on to make him succumb. Damn his genes! They looked so cute when they did that.

"Cleaning the benches, tidying up and staff." Tony said crossing his arms in front of his chest to make a point. He could not break. Eventually they both nodded and walked to their rooms like wet cats. Tony let out a breath he was holding.

"You did very well." Pepper said hugging him from behind.

"I don't like it." Tony said.

"No one likes it but they need to learn boundaries." Pepper said.

"I don't like cleaning up my workshop." Tony said making her laugh.

"Well, it had to be done some day!" she said giving him a peck on the lips.

"Sorry to interrupt, Sir, but you have an incoming call from Ms. Mildred." Jarvis said and he passed the call.

"How's my little CEO?" Tony said hugging Pepper from behind and kissing her cheek.

"Dead." Millie answered and took a deep breath.

"Already? It's only been a week." Pepper said.

"Yeah well, I got more than twenty people thinking they are filling me in or explaining things to me but all they do is giving me a headache." The girl said.

"That comes with the job. I told you to get a P.A." Tony said and winked at her through the video call.

"She has to be filled in anyway." Pepper argued.

"Pepper, can't you just help me? I know I said I didn't need any help but … well, I might need a little. Just a week or so, please, I can't stand them, especially that Phil from the Financial Department. I think I'm going to stab him with my pen every time he opens his mouth." She said and sighed.

"I never liked him, either." Tony agreed and swayed them a little resting his chin on Pepper's shoulder.

"Ok, I guess it's only fair to guide you for a few days." She said and smirked. Tony knew that smirk, it was one of triumph. Had Pepper Potts Stark already knew that would happen? Of course she did! Pepper knew everything.

"Good, thank you, now would you like to drive down to the beach and have some pizza? I really think I'll go nuts if I don't leave this building." Millie said.

"I honestly cannot understand your preference to the Industry's basement rather than our huge room at the end of the house that has a great ocean view. I could make a separate entrance if privacy is what you want." Tony said. He would never let it go.

"I'm a creature of darkness." Millie joked and added. "Ok, so I'll be at Mario's, I'm waiting." She said and hanged up.

"Family dinner at Mario's?" Pepper said.

"Leaving the kids with Millie and walking next to the sea on a full moon?" Tony suggested.

"Is there a full moon, tonight?" Pepper asked him and he nodded.

"No wonder everyone's gone crazy today." She said and freed herself from him to get the kids ready.

"Can we go with the Audi?" Tony asked making a puppy face.

"No, we're using the Monster." Pepper said referring to their big family van.

_Well, I have named it monster for a reason, honey_, Tony thought and smirked as he went to change as well.


	5. When Rogers met the Starks

When Rogers met the Starks

Riley William Rogers was a quiet man. He liked spending his days in the library when he was off work, which happened to be a permanent situation the last few months. He had moved to France shortly after he had graduated college to work for a car Industry but it had been sold due to the crisis and all staff had been fired. That had happened almost one year ago and no one seemed to need a gifted young man with extended studies in business management and resources. So, he remained trapped in Europe, with no money to return and no one to rely on. His only anchor to normality was this little routine of his. Waking up at eight, looking for a job until midday, visit the library until the afternoon and end the day with a visit to his friend's café- restaurant to eat something free of charge. That's where he met Mildred Stark and his life changed; not sure if it was for the best.

_He had been sitting in his favourite seat drinking a coffee, trying to apply the Nash theorem on a recent trade between two big companies using his napkin. It had come to him as a flash really, having nothing else to do. Then he heard her voice. It was a deep voice, pleasant to the ear and full of self confidence._

"_Is that the Nash theorem?" she said in perfect French getting his attention. The first thing he noticed on her was her eyes, big, brown with just a shade of melancholy. She had long brown hair too, falling into loose curls. She was dressed casual in a pair of jeans and a coat that kept her blouse out of sight during to the cold weather. It was almost November. Had she not been so casually dressed he would have recognized her but under that cover of innocence no one would ever imagine. Of course he should have noticed all those men in black around the restaurant._

"_Uhm, yeah, are you familiar with it?" he asked cursing himself inwardly the moment he said it. Of course she knew it how else had she recognized it? _

"_I had done a project about it on my first year in college." She said and took a seat next to him. Riley swallowed hard and straightened his glasses. _

"_Well, I've been monitoring a trade between the Stark Industries and the Japanese Power Company." He said to impress her and her smirk should have given her away but Riley was so nervous he barely noticed the Iron man earrings that were hanging of her lobes. _

"_Really?" she said dragging each letter. "Are you a golden boy or something?" she asked him smiling. Riley smiled softly at that. Well, he used to be._

"_No, actually, I've study Finances and Business management along with Resources." He stated and straightened his back at her raised eyebrows. She looked impressed._

"_That sounds… big. So, what do you think about the trade? Was it a good move?" she asked him leaning forward._

"_I believe so, for the rest of the planet it was. The Stark Industries will have some losses on the first trimester but the profit after that will be more than enough." He said losing himself in his thoughts for a while._

"_You seem like a really smart guy, why are you solving this on a napkin and not in front of a computer in a really expensive office?" she asked him and he blushed a little. Telling someone you were off job was difficult, telling a beautiful woman was even more difficult. _

"_Uhm, I would if I had one." He said and smiled sadly._

"_You don't sound French." She said changing to English from French. _

"_Neither do you." He said._

"_I'm from L.A, my name's Millie." She said shaking his hand._

"_Riley, I'm from New York, Brookline." He said but her attention seemed to be drawn by something behind him._

"_Are you ok?" he asked her and she nodded._

"_I just thought I saw someone." She said and then composed her self. "So, Riley, why don't you go back home?" she asked him._

"_I would if I had a reason." He said. He didn't exactly fancy the idea of going back to Brookline, he liked Paris way more. Besides he had no money to pay for a ticket to the USA._

"_Would a job with a four digit salary, a car and generous bonuses be a good reason for you to come home?" she asked him and he laughed at that. _

"_Who would give me all those?" he asked her slightly mocking her._

"_Me, my dad, basically me now, you'll be working for me but you may want to get along with my dad." She said and got up, signaling someone. For a moment Riley was terrified._

"_Why? Who's your dad?" he asked her and his mind went straight to mafia._

_Millie smiled and put on her gloves._

"_Well, he's Iron Man." She said smirking. She loved saying that, not that she would ever tell her father._

"_What?" Riley yelled and jumped off his seat. _

"_Oh, sorry, I didn't introduce my self properly." She said putting on her sun glasses even though the sun was setting. A tall man in black approached them._

"_Ms. Stark, the car has arrived." He said and if Riley's eyes could reach America they would have done it. Millie gave him a Stark smile and extended one of her gloved hands._

"_I'm Mildred Stark, CEO of the Stark Industries and you're my new Personal Assistant." She said shaking his hand. _

_All Riley could remember after that was darkness. _

He had woken up in her Jet terrified and shocked. He couldn't quite understand how he had found himself in there but once he had met Mike he choke all his questions. The guy was not one to be pissed off and he had little temper. He found a home waiting for him in California, an apartment just half an hour from the Stark industries, a car, latest model and all his stuff. How had all this happened it was beyond him even today but he knew better no to ask. Millie's way of hiring him may had been unorthodox, even though she had explained she was in a hurry, but everything went smoothly from there.

It was a hard job being the P.A of Millie Stark. He had to wake up before her and be ready for her craziest request. He organized her whole schedule, read contracts before her, advised her on financial matters and some times he would meet investors without her. He had to travel half the way around the world and keep her happy because she had a poor temper too, he had to put up with a bunch of agents and bodyguards, plus he had to undergo physical training in case something occurred in a private meeting. But the hardest of it all was the workshop part. He had learned, quite soon, that Millie, as she insisted to be called, liked to be lost in the dark of the company's basement which happened to be her home. She would lock herself in there for days and that was when hell came on earth. Meetings were cancelled, documents went unsigned and general chaos claimed the company. That was how he met Mrs. Stark, the legendary Pepper Potts; the woman who became Tony Stark's right hand in one night and ran the company as CEO for more than seven years.

_It would be one of those days when Millie would refuse to even talk to him through the intercom. He had Japanese investors on his phone yelling, a dozen of departments waiting for a green light to go ahead with a latest project and she had chosen the worst time to get depressed and lock herself up in the basement behind the dark glasses. Riley had gotten a password to the underground apartment within his first month in the company but he was not allowed in the workshop. Most of the times he would stand outside the door and hit the intercom button like a maniac until Millie decided she could come out and do some actual work, but not that day. He would knock, and yell and call her on the phone but she would not answer. It had been two days and he had actually started to worry. So he decided to do the unthinkable, talk to the vice-president, aka Mrs. Stark. Millie had made it clear on his very first day on the job that any problems or complaints he may have he would tell her and he would never, EVER, call Tony or Virginia Stark. However, the situation demanded an exception to the rule._

_He grabbed his tablet and the most important of his papers and walked down the CTO's office. _

"_Hello, Rita." He said to the secretary. _

"_Hello, Mr. Rogers." She said making him wince. He was just another secretary, a very well paid maybe, but to the essence of the job he was another secretary of the CEO. _

"_Uhm, is Mrs. Stark here?" he asked nervously._

"_Having problems with the wonder girl, already?" she joked but he didn't have any time of this. His phone kept buzzing and he had more than a hundred notifications on his tablet._

"_Is she here?" he asked again and the girl nodded. She hit the intercom button to ask Pepper if she would see him and then he was let in. _

_Her office was huge, just like Millie's only it had fewer things in it and looked bigger. Millie had various models and maps, a couch, a TV, Pepper only had a library and a desk, that was it, so simple. She was sitting on her desk, when Riley walked in, typing something on her laptop. As soon as she was over she closed the lid and gave him a board smile; Riley nearly choke. She was beautiful, very classy and she had this air of confidence surrounding her. Tony Stark should never hear him say that._

"_Mr. Rogers, we finally meet!" she said as she got up to shake his hand. She was taller than he imagined and she looked a bit like Millie in that pencil skirt and white shirt. Well, actually, Millie looked like Pepper; she must have copied her professional style. _

"_I'm happy to finally meet you too, I've heard so much about you." Riley said trying to smile. _

"_Me too, Millie has told us so much about you." Pepper said and kept talking while going back to her desk. Riley found himself lost for a few moments looking around at the pictures of the Stark family. There were a lot of them, all around the office, pictures of babies, of toddlers, pictures of Millie's, of Tony Stark and the Stark couple. Riley's favourite was the one on her desk, a family picture in a park._

"_Care to share your real name because I don't think your name is Rail- way." She said and resumed her seat. _

"_No, actually, it's Riley." He said regaining full control of his senses. She had a way of making you feel comfortable and welcomed. _

"_So, Riley, what could I do to help you?" she asked him going over some papers on her desk. _

"_It's about Millie, I mean, Ms. Stark." He said a little embarrassed._

"_That's ok, Riley, I'm sure Millie has you call her by her first name, she doesn't get along with typicality. What happened?" she asked him._

"_I'm really worried, Mrs. Stark. The last time I saw her was two days ago when she flew off to that workshop mumbling something about an idea and she hasn't given a proof of life since then. She's still in there, I'm certain about it but I can't make her get out. I have about 11.000 things I need to talk to her about but I'm really worried about her well-being." Riley said and re- adjusted his glasses._

"_Why don't you go inside the workshop?" Pepper asked surprised._

"_I am not authorized." The young assistant sighed. _

_Pepper smiled and got up. "She's fine, I'm sure." She said but she looked worried. They got out of the office and she told her secretary to postpone all her meetings for that day as she walked away with Riley. She grabbed a cup of coffee on her way to the CEO's office and she ordered Chinese food at the same time. _

"_You know, Riley, it's not so difficult when you know how, it's the stress you must learn to handle." She said and she typed her code to the secret entrance from the CEO's office to the corridor that led to the basement. _

"_Sorry for being curious, Mrs. Stark, but why would someone live in the basement of an industry when she can live anywhere else in the world?" he asked Pepper._

"_Tony asks himself the same thing. I guess it's a privacy thing, I don't know, but I'm sure when you'll get to know Millie better you'll understand. Until then you should probably not let anyone else know about it. We don't want the tabloids all over it." She said never stopping once. _

"_Still, it's strange." Riley said as they got in the apartment and went right through it to the workshop._

"_Eccentric." Pepper said. "Famous billionaires and people running companies are not strange, they are eccentric." She said and stopped in front of the black glasses. _

"_Changed the colour?" she said and typed her code making the door open. _

_Riley's eyes went wide open at the sight of it. Millie Stark was definitely eccentric. _

_There was darkness everywhere, with blue led lights, making the metal benches shine and enhancing all those computer monitors that were all over the place, the air smelled of burn iron and the sounds of black metal were deafening him to death. _

"_Music off" Pepper said like the decibels were absolutely acceptable for her ears. Riley managed to get his hands off his ears and followed her further inside. Millie was sitting in front of a bench working on something that looked very delicate. _

"_Lights on" Pepper added and came to stand right behind the girl. A few lights were on but the place remained somewhat dark. _

_Millie didn't seem to react and Pepper looked at the ceiling. _

"_Ok, now I'm worried." She said and looked up. "She's got TARDIS on mute." She told Riley who seemed to understand little. He knew who, or rather what TARDIS was, Millie's A. I butler. He had been terrified the first time he heard him welcome him to the apartment and he still could not get used to it. _

"_TARDIS ON" Pepper said crossing her arms. _

"_Hello Mrs. Stark." The voice of an old British man responded. Riley had asked Millie how she had manage to create such a real voice and it turned out it belonged to an actual man. An old Butler she had met on a trip to Europe. She had really liked him and asked him to record his voice. _

"_TARDIS, what is the state of Ms. Stark?" she asked in a loud voice but Millie didn't even flinch. It was like she didn't know there were in the room. _

"_Ms. Stark has been in the workshop for exactly two days, eight hours, fifteen minutes and 30 seconds to this moment; Her vitals are high but she has not drunk or ate anything since she entered the room and her body is on the verge of dehydration." The British voice said. _

"_What is she doing?" Riley asked the A. I which was the only one who would speak to, those last days. _

"_She has been working on something that I am forbidden of telling you but for the last few minutes she is just staring at it. _

"_Al right, then it won't matter if I just pull this off." Pepper said getting a cable from the floor._

"_That's the power cable." Millie said in a hoarse voice._

"_Oh, so you do speak." Pepper mocked her and gave the cable to Riley._

_She walked around the bench and held the cup of coffee in front of her nose. Millie took a deep breath and followed the smell of black coffee away from the bench as Pepper walked backwards. _

"_Coffee." Millie said and she snatched it from her hands. Pepper signaled Riley to let the cable down. _

"_When was the last time you ate?" she asked her but the girl shook her hands._

"_Don't remember so not important." She said taking a big gulp of the coffee. _

"_Do you know Riley came worried to me?" she asked her and Millie looked at her P.A._

"_Traitor." She said narrowing her eyes at him. _

"_Millie, I got like 11,000 things I need to talk to you about and about two boxes of papers that need signing." He said regaining some control._

"_Not important!" she yelled and walked back to the bench._

"_That's what's important! That's what's going to save the world." she yelled and looked at the mass of metal again._

"_Outburst." Pepper whispered._

"_Hey, genius, how about letting your father save the world for a while and you go get a shower and some food?" Pepper said but Millie ignored her._

"_Maybe I should just call him and get him down here to help you…" Pepper didn't even finish her sentence and Millie was already on her way to the bathroom._

"_Don't touch anything!" she yelled on her way in. _

"_We got you Chinese!" Pepper told her smiling._

"_That was awesome, how did you do that?" Riley asked with his eyes wide open. _

"_Knowledge comes with experience." She said and typed something in her phone. _

"_I don't think I will ever get good at this." Riley said proceeding to the apartment._

"_You'll learn, it's not easy but it's not impossible. You have to find the buttons." Pepper told him taking a seat on the couch right under the glass roof that let the light of the day to get in. _

"_Buttons?" the young man asked her re adjusting his glasses. _

"_For example, Millie doesn't want Tony around, he tends to mess with her things and programs and that infuriates her. She likes coffee and you'll learn that good, black, Mexican coffee can get a man back from the dead." She told him and he laughed._

"_You'll learn and you are going to be good at it. If you don't kill her or yourself during the first year you are going to make a good friend." She said._

"_I don't know about killing myself but there are times that… never mind." He said remembering where Pepper stood. _

_Pepper smiled. "Millie is not half as bad as Tony was, believe me you're good. She doesn't get drunk in public parties; she attends most of the meetings and gets most of the paperwork done with short delay. She may participate in illegal racings and whine all the time and work to death in there, but believe me, you're good." She said and relaxed as they waited for the young CEO to get out. _

"_We do have trouble with those jeans from time to time." Riley said._

"_We had trouble with every kind of clothing." She said and they both laughed hard._

He liked Pepper very much. She wouldn't come to the office very often, having less to do but he would always greet her whenever he saw her. One of those greetings got him a black eye from Mr. Stark. Well, not the famous one.

_It was shortly before the spring break and the Starks were spending the day at the Lost Children's Home. A personal request from Millie had made Riley drive all around L.A for two days. He finally got to L.C Home in order to give it to her in person. He was greeted by a woman in her fifties and was led to the main whole where everybody should be. Rogers could not really imagine what the Stark family was doing in there every time they visited but sure he didn't expect what he saw. _

_There were about a hundred kids and about ten adults, all in Stark racing t-shirts, in a huge room, big enough to play football in it, watching an F1 grand-prix in a holographic screen. He stood in the corner watching as everyone in the room started yelling and some kids were even on their feet along with a man who was holding a little girl in his arms. Tony Stark. _

"_Go get him! Push the damn gas!" he yelled along with everyone else. Riley understood nothing of cars. He wasn't into sports very much really, any kind of sports, but of what he got the Stark car was about to get a very good position. _

"_Yeah!" it was a sound that filled the room. _

"_Told you we would get on the podium." Tony said to a man near him. _

_Everybody was cheering and celebrating while Riley looked for Millie but he got Pepper instead. _

"_Hi, Riley, what are you doing here?" she asked him._

"_I'm looking for Millie, she asked me to bring her something." Riley said _

"_Well, she must be here somewhere."_

"_She'd better be, she had me driving around all weekend to get her something that I don't even know what it is." He said looking really frustrated which made Pepper laugh. That was his mistake. Tony Stark came out of nowhere holding a red head baby on his arms with a Stark racing hat a t-shirt that said, "Daddy Rocks."_

"_Hi, I'm Tony Stark, you may have heard of me, genius billionaire, Pepper's husband and, oh, Iron man." He said in one breath with that fake polite tone of his. _

"_Pleased to meet you, Mr. Stark, I'm Riley Rogers." Riley said but Tony did not shake his arm. _

"_He's Millie's P.A." Pepper said. _

"_The guy from Paris?" Tony said._

"_Actually, I'm from New York." Riley said._

"_Whatever" Tony said and Pepper rolled her eyes at him for being impolite._

"_So, you two have met?" Tony asked them having that dark look on his face that Riley had seen a hundred times on Millie's face before. _

"_Yeah, actually, it was a few months ago, wasn't it? When Millie locked her self up in her workshop?" Pepper said casually and the young man nodded._

"_Months? Why haven't I met you?" Tony asked balancing Logan on his arms. _

"_Well, you would if you came down to the office every once in a while." Pepper said in her professional smile. She knew where this was going._

"_I don't really have a job there anymore, now do I? I let my beautiful girls do all the job." He said emphasizing the word "my." Riley gave him an awkward smile._

"_They are truly very smart women." He said. Another mistake. _

"_And beautiful too, don't you think?" Tony said guiding him right into the trap._

"_Yes." Riley said smiling to Pepper._

"_Yes, they are. Have you met my son, Logan?" Tony said out of the blue._

"_He's my and Pepper's son, that's where he got the hair colour." He added and brought the baby closer to Riley._

"_Say hi to rail-way." Tony said to the baby and Pepper corrected him. _

"_Riley." But he didn't respond. _

"_He's very handsome, Mr. Stark." Riley said as the baby had reached him and explored his face._

"_Curious too, come on let him explore you for a while." Tony said and put the baby even closer. _

"_Tony I don't think…" Pepper said but Riley shook his head. _

"_It's ok. I love kids." Riley said. Tony Stark didn't look very happy to meet him and he knew he wanted to change that. He needed to._

"_See, Peps, there's no harm. Oh, let me take these, we don't want them to break." Tony said taking Riley's glasses from Logan who had removed them. _

"_Bad guy." Logan mattered and before anyone could stop him he punched Riley right in the eye._

_Riley screamed from pain. It was as if his eye had reached his brain._

"_He's also very strong." Tony said grinning and kissing Logan, secretly telling him, good job._

"_Tony! Look what you did!" Pepper said trying to help the poor man. _

"_I did?" he said looking hurt._

"_I know you were behind this." She said as everyone gathered around them due to the scream. Millie got next to Pepper along with Ed and Marie._

"_What happened? Riley?" she asked somewhat worried. She looked at her father who pointed at the baby and rolled her eyes. _

"_I'm not going to ask." She said and took a look at Riley's eye._

"_Sorry for that Rail-boy." She told him and he nodded as he pasted her the package._

"_I found it." he said making her smile. _

"_Your self-sacrifice deserves some care for that eye." She said and got him to the kitchen as everyone returned to their jobs._

_Pepper looked very angry._

"_YOU GO IN THERE AND APOLOGIZE!" she barked through her teeth to Tony. She knew he had a jealousy problem, but that went beyond logic._

"_I have nothing to apologize for." Tony said in his casual voice._

"_You made our one year old punch another guy because he talked to me." Pepper said boiling with anger._

"_He was being overly friendly with you and Logan felt like protecting the family." Tony said. _

"_YOU have a serious problem and if you don't go in THERE right now and apologize you are going to sleep in the pool, on a mattress that will float over water!" Pepper said pointing at his arc reactor and took the baby off his hands._

_Tony stood steel as he watched her leave talking tenderly to the boy. _

"_She is serious." Ed told him._

"_I think so." Tony said and gulped._

"_You made her really angry." Marie added. _

"_It was not my fault." Tony whined._

"_It was not my fault the lab was blown away but I spent three hours cleaning up the workshop." Ed told his father. Tony looked at him as the boy smirked._

_The tiny little … _

"_But you did do it." Tony argued. "And the situation is totally different."_

"_Why?" Marie and Ed asked._

"_Well, I'm a grown up."_

"_That's pathetic." Marie said and Tony almost laughed at that. She was right, it was pathetic._

"_Join me?" he asked them and they nodded. He would be safe with them._

_They walked to the kitchen were Mildred was pressing a piece of meat against Riley's eye._

"_You'll use Eddie and Marie this time?" Millie told him throwing daggers with her eyes._

"_I'm sorry for what happened in there; I kind of…lost control for a while." Tony said._

"_That's ok Mr. Stark, boy will be boys." Riley said and yelled as Millie put more pressure._

"_That's the thing, I kind of told Logan to hit you, I'm sorry, but hey, welcome to the family." Tony said patting on his shoulder a bit too hard._

"_Welcome, Mr. Rogers." Marie said. "I am Marie." She told him and shook his hand. _

"_Thank you, Marie."_

"_I'm Edward." Ed said and shook his hand. _

"_Nice to meet you, Edward, I'm Riley." The young man said trying to see the boy as his eye was covered with what looked liked a piece of cotton now. _

"_It's for the bruise." Millie explained._

"_Mr. Rogers, you seem like a nice man but I need to tell you something. Logan is one year old and I am six. Remember that in case you ever make Millie sad." Eddie said and left along with Marie. _

"_I think he spends way too much time with you, Tony." Millie told her father._

"_Well, I'm the one being at home when others aren't there." He said and paused. "When others are there I tend not to be home. I need better timing." Tony said and looked at his hands realizing he was still holding Riley's glasses._

"_Uhm, here, you might need these." He said and gave them to him._

"_Thank you." The young man said and put them on as Millie freed his eye. It wasn't really that bad. Logan had a small fist, although powerful._

_Tony took a good look at him, like he was studying him._

"_Actually, you may want to get rid of them. You're the P.A of the CEO of the Stark Industries now. You're the face sideways to the face of the company, you're public, you need to be handsome. Not Tony Stark handsome but in an acceptable level." He said and left winking at them. _

That's how Riley Rogers met the Stark family. There were good people, all of them, even though they were hard to deal with and they had weird lives but in the end of the day they were just a family. Someone would think it was a dysfunctional one but Riley preferred the term unique. Billionaire families that save the world are not dysfunctional they are unique, and Logan Stark never hit him, he just tried his power on him.


	6. The Night before

The night before

_He walked in the bar handing his hat and coat to a young man who bowed as he passed by. He sat on a stool putting his black cane on the bench._

"_Good evening, Mr. Stark, the usual?" the bartender asked him and he nodded. _

"_Where are the girls tonight, Mike?" Tony asked the bartender._

"_They'll be out in a moment Mr. Stark, the Twins are almost over." The man answered as he purred Tony some scotch in his glass. The famous millionaire looked towards the stage as the pianist faded into silence and the twins, Kelly and Helly, disappeared. _

"_Now, gentlemen, our famous ballet, the Red Girls!" the manager said and as the pianist begun playing a cheerful melody a dozen of girls dressed in red vests and skirts along with black heels made their appearance on stage dancing. She was there, second from the middle, the red head. _

_Tony grabbed his glass and walked to his usual table, one that was always reserved for him. He sat down and watched the red head as she danced. She had haunted his dreams since the first time he had saw her; Pepper. She had long red hair that matched her red lips and her skin was so soft and pale he could just spend an eternity kissing it. _

"_Good evening, Mr. Stark, your table had been empty for quite a long." The manager said approaching him. Fury, that was what everybody called him around here. He was tall, with an eye patch covering his left eye and a fake smile constantly reserved for those that provided him a stable income, Tony being one of them. He never really liked him but his place was the only one were he could come and be lost in his darkness. _

"_I've been away." Tony said never taking his eyes of stage._

"_You missed our Pepper, I see." Fury said._

"_I don't pay you to see." Tony barked. Fury looked towards the stage and then at the millionaire before him. _

"_Should I tell her to get to her room after the act?" Fury asked him and Tony nodded saying nothing more. The manager was lost and he was left alone at last to enjoy the show. It was not actually the show he liked but one particular girl dancing under the dim light. He never understood how that connection was made and why he, Anthony Edward Stark, billionaire, owner of the most profitable weapon industry thanks to the war in Europe, paid for love, for Pepper's love but night after night he would come seeking her touch. It had been going on like this for at least seven to eight years. She had been just a girl when he first saw her dance on that very stage and he was a young man who had just taken control of his company. He had met various women since then, hundreds had passed from his bed and he even had been divorced once, a marriage that lasted less than a month, but he always came back to her, his red-head witch. _

_As Tony recollected his life the piano stopped and the girls bowed to the crowd most of them men. They got off the stage and walked towards the tables to 'greet' their favorite customers._

"_Hi, Tony." A blond girl said sitting on his knees._

"_Hi, Natasha." Tony said looking for Pepper._

"_Oh, Tony, when are we going to drink together?" the blond asked him playing with his hair._

"_Not tonight, Nat, I got plans." He said finally spotting his red head speaking with Fury. She nodded and looked at him through the smoke of the cigars. She looked tired and not very happy. _

"_What has Pepper done to you, Mr. Stark? No one else deserves your attention?" another woman said._

"_Sorry gals, not tonight." He said and got his cane to walk away. He reached the stairs on the back of the club that led to the rooms. He saw a little boy playing with a wooden horse. He was Pepper's son._

"_Hi, Eddie, how are you?" he asked the boy._

"_Oh, hi, Mr. Stark, I'm good." He said looking a bit tired._

"_How's school?" he asked_

"_Fine I guess. Are you visiting mum?" the boy asked him and Tony nodded. He didn't like this, children growing up in such places._

"_Why don't you go to Mike, ask him to make you something to eat? My treat." Tony said and caressed the boy's hair. Brown like his eyes._

"_Thank you Mr. Stark!" He said and vanished. Brown eyes, brown hair, like most of them in that place, like him. He could be his son as well._

_He got upstairs and walked down the corridor passing the green doors, one by one. He never understood why Pepper kept staying there. He gave her a bunch of money almost every night and he was sure she could afford better than that. He reached the last door and opened it without knocking. He saw her, still in her professional clothes, leaning over a crib to calm down a baby. That was a picture he didn't expect. _

"_Well, Mr. Stark, my bed hasn't seen you in ages." She said approaching him slowly._

"_I've been away, obviously for a long time. Another baby?" Tony asked her fixing his eyes on the crib. Pepper stopped and smiled softly._

"_A girl, she's just two months old." She said. "She's asleep now; there will be no problem for us." She added and got to his side but Tony got to the crib. He reached for the baby's hair and she opened her eyes just for a fragment of second. Blue eyes just like her mother and brown hair. _

"_She's very beautiful, just like her mother." He said._

"_Thank you" Pepper replied she was not used to such kindness before, even from him. _

"_What about her father?" Tony asked making the woman walk away. He was not stupid, he was actually a genius and he never made a math mistake. That baby was two months old and he had been away for almost nine months, so she had already being pregnant when he left, and Tony let no one touch his gal when he was in town._

"_I don't think that's the reason you came to my room tonight, Mr. Stark." She said and lied down on her bed. She never called him Tony, not when she was in control. She was always very professional with him, never letting her walls down, and she would never tell him. _

"_No it's not." He said and let his cane fell down as he limped towards her. She instantly looked worried. _

"_What happened to you?" she asked him. _

"_I went to Europe for a business trip; it was supposed to be a safe location." He said and sat on the bed beside her. _

"_Talk to me." She said taking his jacket of his shoulders._

"_I remember little of it. There was a light, an explosion and then darkness." He said as Pepper massaged his shoulders taking the tension off of him. It felt so good._

"_I spent eight months in darkness, naked, tortured…" his voice trailed off as Pepper stopped. _

"_Oh, my God, Tony…" she said and his name sounded like music coming from her. _

"_What did they want from you?" she asked him getting her hands further down unbuttoning his shirt. She could see the marks of his captivity revealing as she removed the silk fabric. _

"_To know who I was for one thing, make weapons for another." He said lost somewhere between her touch and his memories. Pepper trailed his scars and bruises with the tips of her fingers. She couldn't believe it, he sounded fragile, broken._

"_Shhhh, you're home now." She whispered in his ear before she could stop it. She felt awkward for a moment but pulled him down in the end. _

"_I was thinking about you, when I was there." Tony confessed caressing her face that stood inches from his. Pepper dismissed his words. She had no time for Mr. Stark's games. She was fragile too and could not, should not let him get into her heart, even if sometimes she thought it was too late. _

"_It was your face that kept me from going mad, Virginia."_

"_Don't…" she cut him putting a finger on his mouth. "… call me that and stop playing all broken and loving to me, you don't have to seduce me Mr. Stark, I'm well paid for my services." She said getting to his belt. Tony grabbed her hands to stop her. _

"_You are not paid to worry about me but you still do it. I know it Pep, I've always known." He said making her jump off him like she had been struck by a lightning. _

"_What is it you think you know?" she yelled at him grabbing a cigarette from her night stand. She lit it and starting smoking nervously._

_Tony got up reached for his cane and walked towards her. _

"_I can see it in your eyes when you dance and you really only look at me." He said trying to approach her but she turned around and walked to the other end of the room. _

"_You pay a hell lot of money for me." She said trying to conceal the tremor in her voice. She knew what he was talking about but he was only playing. That was what Anthony Stark only did, he played and she should never believe him because then she would be hurt and alone and out of work. _

"_You don't believe me, I guess I deserve that, being alone for the rest of my life but life will taste bitter without you by my side." He said making her face him throwing daggers with her eyes._

"_Bullshit, Stark!" she yelled waking the baby. She threw the cigarette on the floor stepping on it as she reached the crib. _

"_Pepper, I spent eight months knowing I may die in any moment and when they finally put that gun on my head all I could think about was you. I love you Virginia and I know you love me." He said kissing her shoulder. _

"_I want to marry you, let me take you away from here, give your children a better life." He murmured in her ear._

"_I should not believe you." She gasped. _

"_But you do." Tony remarked turning her around to face him. _

"_I know you far too well …" she said smirking. _

"_Then there's no risk, is there?" he said in his deep voice._

"_Well," she didn't finish as he claimed her mouth and kissed her like she was the only thing that kept him alive. He felt her smile against his lips even though she tried to hide it. She was in love with him, he had her since day one, it just took him a hell to realize she was there._

"_I'm here now." He said resting his forehead on hers._

"_Are you?" a different voice asked and he looked on his left where Loci's schizophrenic face was looking at him smirking._

"_Loci?" he said surprised._

"_Say bye to your lady friend Stark." The god of mischief told him and pulled him towards a gate._

"_Pepper!" he screamed. _

"_Tony! Don't leave me!" Pepper cried but out of nowhere Justin Hammer appeared along with Vanko. Tony straggled to get out of Loci's grip but it was too tight. _

"_Don't worry Anthony, I'm not going to let her live apart from you. Actually I'm not going to let her live… at all." Hammer said and shot Pepper on the head._

"_NO! PEPPER!" Tony screamed to the top of his lungs hitting Loci with his head and getting free._

"_Where do you thing you're going?" Vanko said charging his whips. Tony instinctively touched his chest remembering about the suit case._

"_There's no arc reactor, Stark, you're in the '40s remember?" Fury told him opening the door. _

"_You bastard!" Tony yelled and ran to him only to be knocked down by Vanko._

"_Mama?" Eddie came through the door looking scared. _

"_Eddie!" Tony screamed but Vanko hit him with one of his whips destroying half the room. In the meanwhile aliens started falling of the sky and flying around on their jets._

"_Don't you be afraid, boy; everything is going to be just fine." Hammer said walking towards the crib and getting the baby off of it. Tony got up and tried to stop him but Loci caught him once more._

"_You should end what you start Stark." He hissed in his ear and dragged him on the floor by the foot. _

"_Don't worry, Stark, I'll take care of your children until you come back." Hammer said disappearing in the smoke of destruction as aliens were taking the place apart. _

"_No!" Tony yelled but he was already halfway inside the portal. He felt the air in his lungs leaving as he saw Pepper's dead body and the aliens taking over the world over the music of Iron Man played on the saloon's piano. _

"Tony wake up!" Pepper screamed smacking his shoulder. The man took a deep panicked breath as he jumped off the couch. He looked around trying to realize were he was and calmed down when he saw Pepper and two of their kids looking at him worried.

"What happened?" He asked grabbing his head.

"I guess you overslept watching Moulin Rouge. You must have seen a nightmare because you were screaming like you were tortured." Pepper answered him.

"Oh, have I awakened you guys?" He asked Ed and Marie and they nodded.

"Sorry, go to bed now, I won't wake you up again, promise." He said and kissed them good night. The two children left and the couple was left alone.

"What happened, Tony, it sounded pretty bad, worse than the ones you were having when you came back from Afghanistan." Pepper said touching his RT.

"I don't know, Peps, it was kind of crazy with aliens and Hammer and some crazy guy playing Black Sabbath on a saloon piano." Tony said getting her hand to lead the way towards the bedroom.

"That bad, I guess Mediterranean cuisine does harm you after all." She said trying to cheer him up. Those nightmares were getting worse and worse.

"Well, there was something good in it; you dressed in very sexy theatre clothes." He said as they walked down the corridor.

"Aliens, Hammer, saloon pianist and me as an actress?" She said confused.

"A dancer actually but your real job was far more dirty… and exciting for me." He said opening the door. Pepper gave it a thought as she closed the door and she finally met his smirking face with wide open eyes bigger than their plates.

"Really? Really? Of all the things you dreamt of me as a who…"

"Pepper, there are kids in this house." Tony cut her off and stripped to his boxers to get into bed.

"Besides you were smoking hot and I was going to marry you." He explained.

"You can't save it." Pepper said and joined him.

"At least I know what to get you for tomorrow." Tony said having a very specific gift in mind. It was more of a gift to him really but he would buy them for her.

"Tomorrow? You mean, you remembered?"

"C'mon, Peps, would I ever forget the day I hired you?" he joked.

"Which happens to be the same date as our anniversary." She said smiling.

"Oh, really?" Tony faked surprised.

"Yes, hadn't you noticed?" Pepper played along.

"My memory is kind of fogged about that…"

"Would you like me to fresh up your memory?" she whispered in his ear.

"Yes, please." Tony said eager and turned on his side to face her fully.

Pepper leaned over him and whispered.

"You've made a mistake Mr. Stark… but I'm too tired to explain it to you." She said and kissed him before she lay down on her pillow.

"You are going to be the death of me, Potts." Tony said hugging her.

"Funny, I always thought it would be the other way around." She said and closed her eyes.


	7. The party

The party, the package and the others

The musicians had been there since early afternoon and the sound of guitars, violins and piano followed everyone as they were preparing the garden around the pool. It was the Stark's anniversary party and Pepper had everything running on schedule. Tony had called the musicians and so Pepper was not sure what was awaiting them, even though they didn't sound too bad.

After the fiasco of their first anniversary party with all the paparazzi and the reporters and people they barely knew while Pepper was constantly on the phone checking on baby Eddie, they had decided it was better to keep it in a more personal level. Of course the words Tony, personal and party don't go together so they just had to compromise. They called close friends such as Rhodey, Happy, some of Pepper's best friends, people from the company Tony actually liked, the racing department for example and of course people from SHIELD. That last part was what made Pepper a bit sad these days. Apart from Natasha and Clint the only other SHIELD agent that would accept their invitation was Coulson. His loss fell heavy on their shoulders even if Tony wouldn't admit, that's why Logan's middle name was Phillip. They would always remember him.

"Tony, don't you think it's about time you dressed up?" Pepper said looking at her husband who was talking with the musicians on stage.

"I'm not naked, Pepper!" he said annoyed. He was up to something. Pepper heard giggles and saw everybody staring at them.

"Tony, do I need to come up there and drag you to the room to get you dressed just like our four year old?" she said putting her hands on her hips. Tony looked at her and after telling something to the pianist he jumped off the stage right in front of her.

"That was actually kind of sexy, until the four year old part." He said and gave her a peck.

"Aren't you going to get dressed?" he asked her as he walked inside.

"I'm right behind you Stark." She said following him.

He liked seeing her like this, all bossy and organized and typing on her phone furiously while giving orders. It reminded him of the old days.

They walked in the room where Tony's suit and Pepper's dress were already lying on the bed.

"Am I ever going to pick up my own clothes?" Tony said picking up his black jacket.

"Do you want to pick up your own clothes?" Pepper said stripping down to her undergarments.

"No actually, I like relying on you." He said kissing her shoulder.

"You mean you like me bossing you around." She said and picked up her new dark blue dress. Tony got a chance to look at her full body as she stripped entirely out of her clothes.

"That too, no panties?" he said putting on his pants.

Pepper shook her head. "Panty lines." She explained and slipped into her dress.

"For ever sexy" Tony whistled putting on his shirt.

"Only for you, Stark." She said and gave him a kiss while giving him her back to zip her up.

"You better." He mumbled.

"Riley will be here tonight, so don't try anything on him." She said and turned around to help him button his shirt.

"I made amends with the guy, I even bought him a suit!" he said making Pepper laugh.

"I saw it, he really likes it." she said helping him put on his jacket.

"Of course he does, I picked it up." He said and reached for his bow tie.

"Bow tie?" he told Pepper smiling.

"Honestly, Tony, some times I wonder if I raise three or four children." She said tying it.

"Come on, Virginia, I know you like it." he said grinning at her stunned face.

"What did you call me?" she asked.

"Virginia, I think it's your name." he said. "What don't you like it? That's how you introduced yourself exactly seventeen years ago." He said.

"I know but you never call me that." She said and then thought. "Did you just make a romantic reference to the very first time we met?"

"That was my intention, yes." He said smirking. Unlikely what other people think Tony Stark let nothing important happen by chance, everything went by design. He had scheduled their wedding day on the exact day Pepper burst into his office fighting with his secretary to tell him about his mistake. Similar to that he had scheduled Marie to be born on the same date as Mille; now don't ask how he had done that, maybe luck was a bit on his side on that matter.

"Oh, honey, you're so sweet when you want to." She said and kissed him deeply.

"I love you too." Tony said when they broke apart.

"I'll go check on the kids, you go downstairs, Rhodey must be here any minute." Pepper said and as of a reply Jarvis said.

"Mr. Rhodey has just passed the gate."

Both of them walked out of the room and met Stella with the kids.

"Smoking." Tony teased his oldest son who was dressed in tuxedo matching his dad's. Ed laughed and rolled his eyes as Pepper bent down to fix his bow tie.

"Daddy, how do I look?" Marie asked him turning around to show off her cute yellow dress.

"Is that you Marie?" Tony faked a surprise making them giggle.

Pepper approached Stella who was holding Logan.

"We had a difficult time." Stella said and Pepper smiled straightening the baby's hair.

He was wearing a dark blue baby suit with a vest and a cute little tie.

"Well, he'll strip down to his shirt eventually; just keep him decent for a while." Pepper said making Tony laugh hard as he left to greet his old friend.

"Rhodes, you old…"

"Tony, I'm not alone." Rhodey cut him off before he could finish his sentence.

"Oh, hi, Sonia." Tony greeted Rhodey's wife grinning.

"Hi, Tony." The woman replied. It hadn't taken his old friend much time to find his alter ego, they had met in Tony's marriage actually. Sonia was Pepper's friend.

"Is that Cecilia?" Tony faked a surprise as he had done with his daughter earlier.

"Hi, Uncle Tony!" The little girl said hugging his leg.

"Where's Marie?" she asked him.

"She'll be here in a minute." Tony said as footsteps were heard on the Stairs.

"Cecil!" Marie yelled and ran to her best friend saying hi to everyone.

"They saw each other yesterday." Pepper said watching the two girls saying something to Edward who frowned.

"Poor Eddie." Sonia laughed and hugged Pepper. They hadn't seen each other in a long time.

"Oh my God, Sonia, I've missed you so much." Pepper said.

"Well, that's how it feels to be the odd man out." Rhodey joked joining Tony.

"No bad feelings, James, I just hadn't seen my friend in ages." Pepper said hugging him too.

"Don't worry, Pepper, no bad feelings for you." He said smiling and followed Tony outside.

"So, what was that about the song you told me earlier?" James yelled at him and Tony literary disappeared from Pepper's point of view.

"Oh, no, what's he going to do this year?" Pepper sighed.

"Judging by last year, something spectacular." Sonia said and walked outside as well.

The previous year, Tony had done the unthinkable. He had flied out in his suit forming her name, or rather her nickname, on the sky with the fumes of his boots. Yeah, that was discreet.

People kept on coming, and everything was going according to schedule. Natasha and Clint had come, causing no kind of disaster, as Tony was expecting, but bringing with them a little surprise. Steve Rogers.

"What is he doing here?" Tony asked as soon as he saw him.

"I was invited, Stark." Steve said trying to be polite due to the ladies.

"I didn't invite you; did you invite him, Peps?" Tony asked his wife not expecting a positive answer.

"Yes, actually, I think it's time you dropped this childish behaviour and act like adults. You've been fighting together for five years now!" Pepper said proving her point.

"Men, they will never grow up, especially yours." She said walking towards the pool.

"Yours is playing with a bow and arrows." Tony complained.

"I can get one of those, right on your chest, Stark, so watch your mouth." Clint said and followed Natasha. Pepper grabbed Tony and Steve and got them out as well.

The band was playing a familiar song, the same song they had danced THAT night on the charity event when she was still his P.A and he had just came back from hell.

"Come on, Potts, it's our song." Tony said and dragged her to the dancing area.

"Actually, it's Stark nowadays." She said smiling. Tony grinned at her.

"I'm surprised you didn't comment on the song and THAT night." Tony said gracefully dancing with her and showing her off as his most valuable treasure.

"The night you almost kissed me and then damped me? I prefer not to remember it at all, besides as I said, I became Mrs. Stark after all." She said smirking and Tony made a face of alter shock and surprise.

"So that was your goal from the very beginning, charm me, let me burn for a decade and when I least expected it you made your way into my bed and bind me down with your tricks." He said and sighed. "All that for a name, I would have given it to you if you only asked." He said making her laugh out hard. He loved it when it happened and he loved it even more when he caused it. It was a rare view, seeing Pepper laugh out loud, carefree, like she had not a care in the world and it was always a treasure.

"If only I knew it, it would have saved me a lot of trouble." Pepper joked and Tony smiled. There was a pinch of truth in that sentence. He had been an ass, everybody knew that and wondered how Pepper put up with him but what he had regretted more was the fact he let Pepper handle his one night stands, when he knew it hurt her, when he secretly knew she had feelings for him. Maybe that was the reason he had been doing it, because she was denying her feelings towards him and that was a way to push her to the edge, to punish her for not succumbing to him.

"I love you, Mrs. Stark" he said in a very serious tone that startled her.

"I love you too, Mr. Stark." She replied seeing that sadness in his eyes. She knew his mind had traveled somewhere, maybe light-years away, during their dance.

The song finished and Tony kissed her hand bowing in front of her.

"I hope that was your surprise for this year." Pepper said looking at him suspiciously.

"Surprise? What surprise?" he said but she didn't buy it.

"I'm going to check on the kids. Speaking of kids, where's Millie?" she asked him and walked off.

Tony had completely forgotten about his oldest. He took a look around searching for her. She had it in her blood to appear in parties and stay under a stealth system so he wouldn't spot her; merely because she didn't like his reactions when she was making public relations.

He spotted Riley near the glass door talking to Rhodey and Sonia. Tony put on his smile and walked towards him.

"Hey, rail-way, I see you dropped those glasses." Tony said and patted him a little too hard on the shoulder.

"Yes, Mr. Stark, I followed your advice." Riley said.

"Be careful, Tony, you don't want to lose this one, he's quite a mind of what I heard." Sonia said.

"Tony knows what's best for him but I would advice you to keep your hands off Millie." Rhodey joked.

"Ms. Stark is my boss!" Riley exclaimed. He had been receiving jokes like that since the first day he put his foot inside Millie's office. Given the history of Tony and Virginia Stark people thought it just ran to the family and that every Stark was dating his or hers assistant. Even if Millie and he had shown them no signs, even if Millie herself had given no excuses for people to discuss her personal life, people always talked about THAT.

"Speaking of your boss, where is she?" Tony asked him.

"She's downstairs, in the garage, changing." Riley said.

"Why?" Tony asked him.

"I'm not allowed to say anything or complain but I actually had to drag her out of her workshop and get her to the car. She lost like three important meetings today and only God knows how I got those budget forms signed." Riley said frustrated. It had been one of those days again, the really difficult ones.

"You drove her here?" Tony asked him.

"Well, someone had to otherwise she would still be there." Riley said. He was still a bit afraid of Tony but he knew as long as he kept away of dangerous words like "Millie", "shower" and anything that could be a red fabric to Tony Stark, he was safe.

Right at that moment Millie approached with her heels making a similar sound Pepper's always did. Tony had seen Millie in heels various times, in occasional charity events and a few times she had driven home after work. The first time she had done that he had been in utter shock. It was like seeing Pepper in a brown wig. However, all those times he had never noticed the sound that came from her heels. It was something he had connected with Pepper's presence and hearing it from someone else… felt awkward. For a moment his thought jump to his youngest daughter and what would happen when she became a teenager. Well, she better wait for that!

"I hope you are not giving poor Riley a hard time again." She said patting her assistant on the back. "I really should thank him for getting me here tonight; I was in a zombie mode." She said making everyone laugh. "Nice to see you again, James and you Sonia." She said and hugged the couple.

"Well, CEO of the Stark Industries, how do you feel?" Sonia asked her.

"Suffocating, I should really tell Rail-way how important he is to me more often but that would just give him an ego boost." She said.

"That would be a change." Riley joked and got a smack on the head by his boss.

"You're fired." She said.

"Good, then I'm allowed to enjoy the party without having to answer all those phone calls we're expecting from Tokyo." He said drinking casually.

"You've relaxed more than I would like you to, Rogers. You're unfired, now, go fetch me a drink. Dry Martini, no olives." She said and Riley left saluting them.

"Where are my little monsters?" she asked Tony.

"Somewhere in the back, I think." Tony said.

"I'll go see them. If Riley comes back tell him to stay put." She said and walked away.

"I'll come with you." Sonia said and followed her.

Both men watched her go, Millie's red dress flying gracefully. They met Riley half way and they started talking with someone that might or might not have been Chester, the financial director. Millie was bored only to see him and Tony knew that by her reactions. The fake smile, the way she moved her hands when she talked, the way she stood; all too professional, almost Pepper-professional.

"Are you sure Pepper's not her real mother?" Rhodey said seeing the resemblance himself.

"Well, she taught her well but sometimes I'm wondering too." Tony said.

"You should see Marie though, she's going to be one hell of a business woman, or a detective, I don't know." Tony added making his friend smile.

"Cecilia wants to be an astronaut." Rhodey said and they both laughed softly.

"Who would have imagined all those years ago, Tony, that we would sit here, discussing about our kids like normal family guys."

"Oh, we're not normal, not the least but I'm still cool." He said and he left his pal to get on stage. He patted on the microphone to get everyone's attention.

"Hello, people!" He said and could spot Pepper walking towards the stage with that look on her face. The one she had when she was getting ready to face his craziness.

"So, we were all gathered here tonight to celebrate my birthday." He said and then the guitarist whispered something in his ear.

"Oh, no? It's not my birthday? And I was thinking we were having an early party." Tony said making everyone laugh.

"Oh, it's our anniversary. What are all these people doing here, then? I don't need you to celebrate my anniversary, ok maybe I need you, don't ask why." He told the violin player "but I don't need you. Actually in order to have a proper party I need an empty house, and that's for Pepper 'cause actually I don't mind." He said raising another wave of laughter but making Pepper blush.

"Ok, let's cut the crap, that's what my wife has been asking from me since the day we met but it's just impossible for me to stop. She loves me though and she's given me three wonderful kids and I don't know how she does it or how she puts up with me really, I would have left me a long time ago. She's gorgeous, unbelievable sexy, caring, kind, professional, bossy and she was always there for me. I think I'll never find a way to thank you enough but I love you, Peps, for all the things you are and the thinks you've come to be, ladies and gentlemen, Meet Virginia!" Tony yelled and a cheerful tone started from the band.

Pepper was watching in awe. No, he didn't…

Tony grabbed the microphone and killed her doubts.

_She doesn't own a dress, her hair is always a mess  
If you catch her stealin', she won't confess  
She's beautiful, she smokes a pack a day, wait that's me, but anyway  
She doesn't care a thing about that, hey  
She thinks I'm beautiful. Meet Virginia_

_She never compromises, loves babies and surprises_  
_Wears hi-heels when she exercises_  
_Ain't that beautiful_  
_Meet Virginia_

_Well she wants to be the Queen_  
_Then she thinks about her scene_  
_Pulls her hair back as she screams_  
_I don't really wanna be the queen_

_Her daddy wrestles alligators, Mama works on carburetors_  
_Her brother is a fine mediator for the President_

_Well here she is again on the phone  
Just like me hates to be alone  
We just like to sit at home, and rip on the President_

_Meet Virginia_  
_Well she wants to live her life_

_Then she thinks about her life  
Pulls her hair back as she screams  
I don't really wanna live this life_

_She only drinks coffee at midnight, when the moment is not_  
_Right, her timing is quite unusual_  
_You see her confidence is tragic, but her intuition magic_  
_And the shape of her body unusual_

_Meet Virgina I can't wait to_  
_Meet Virginia, yeah e yeah hey hey hey_

_Well she wants to be the queen and_

_Then she thinks about her scene  
Well she wants to live her life  
Then she thinks about her life  
Pulls her hair back as she screams  
I don't really wanna be the queen  
I, I don't really wanna be the queen  
I, I don't really wanna be the queen  
I, I don't really wanna live this_

Oh, I definitely want to live this.

Tony yelled as the song ended and everybody just cheered and whistled. He jumped off the stage right in front of Pepper who had managed to get to the first row and gave her a passionate kiss that made her legs tremble. When they parted she was left with her eyes closed for a few seconds trying to register what had just happened.

"I told you, I'll make all your dreams come true." He told her and she just buried her face in his chest hiding her tears.

"You are one damned wonderful pain on the neck." She mumbled against his arc reactor and he laughed.

"No kidding Pepper, you should be careful what you wish for." He joked but she kissed him again.

"Thanks for making my teenage dream true, Tony." She said melting along with those big, brown eyes of his. When Pepper had told him about this dream of hers she had back in high school, where a rock star sings a song just for her and then jumps off the stage to just kiss her, Tony knew he had to do it. There was just this tiny voice in his head that kept telling him to do it and he did it. He found the perfect song and he did it.

"Thanks for making all my dreams come true, Virginia." He said and winked at her holding her tight.

Tony's song had been the peak of the night and it wasn't long after that, that people started leaving. Pepper was escorting them to the door leaving Tony handle the ones left. Natasha approached Tony in a moment like that. He was standing near the pool watching Millie talk with Rogers, Steve Rogers, trying to understand what they could possibly talk about.

"The war." Natasha answered him, reading his mind.

"You should stop doing that, really, it freaks me out." Tony said taking a sip from his drink. His third that night, he had been counting.

"It's easy to guess what you're thinking, Stark, you're an open book." She said and Tony grimaced.

"I just got a call from Fury." She added and Tony took another sip.

"Don't spoil my night, Rushman." He said.

"They spotted a warehouse in Mexico that looks suspicious. It's like they're up to something, something big. They're making missiles." She said and looked at him as Tony tightened his grip around the glass. He had a thing with missiles and terrorists.

"We're to leave at once but you can stay the night; be at the HQ tomorrow at 7:00 sharp." She told him.

"Is there going to be a mission?" he asked her not taking his eyes from the couple across the pool.

"Most likely." She said and walked away to meet Clint and take Rogers on their way out. They surely knew how to kill a man's night. He had plans for that night and he certainly had not planned to leave his home in the middle of the it. Especially when the next day was a Sunday, with an excursion in it. Pepper walked near him seeing his face.

"What's the matter?" she asked him rubbing his back.

"Rushman destroyed my plans." He said looking towards the exit. "I need to leave at dawn." He said and her face fell as well.

"Another mission?" she asked. It had been a while since they had gathered.

"Probably." He said and finished his drinks. "I just hate it you know, that?" he whined like a child.

"I know it, Tony, but the world needs you." She said.

"Can't the world wait for just a day? I had planned an excursion for tomorrow, to Disneyland!" he said making her laugh.

"Oh, right, just laugh at me but when you hear what you'd be missing tonight." Tony said faking hurt.

"Oh, I'm sure it'll break my hurt but I'll have to wait 'till you're back."

"I still don't like it, it's our anniversary night." He said.

"Well, I promise to make the night after tonight very interesting." She said cupping his face.

"Really? You mean…" he said but let it hung due to her look.

"Let's just say you didn't find those suits for a reason." She said making him grin from ear to ear.

"Potts, you are a devil in Prada." He said making her moan.

"I'm doing my best, boss." She said and kissed him lightly on the lips. "I'm getting the kids into bed." She whispered at him and left.

"You complete me!" he yelled at her back and saw her vanish at the inside of the house. Then he looked around and spotted Millie lying on one of the beach- chairs, drinking another glass of wine.

"Did you lose another Rogers?" he joked as he joined her.

"We were exchanging our experiences on you." She said making him frown.

"And I thought you would talk about the War." He said.

"That too." She said looking at the stars. Tony joined her look.

"It's a marvelous night." He said and she nodded.

"It is, it was a nice party." She said drinking some more. "Especially when you played Rock Star." She joked and they both laughed.

"It's one of my many talents, maybe I should consider it." Tony joked.

"Riley says you have it in you." She said smiling. If anything Tony was a showman.

"He's a good kid, keep him." He replied and she laughed.

"No, really, he's a good kid." He added.

"I found him solving an equation on a napkin." She said smirking. Tony smirked too.

"So, I am a psychic after all." He joked shaking his head.

"He's really good, I just feel like he needs a break every once in a while. The guy functions on coffee and signatures, really! I could just call him on a Sunday and he would drive half around the world if that would mean he could get some papers signed and I do paperwork!" she said making Tony laugh very hard.

"Talking about Sundays, I've been meaning to ask you about that package he brought you the other day, on the LC. What was it 'cause it looked like those packages we have at the company down at the experimentation department." He said causing her eyes to pop out.

"I don't know what surprises me the most the fact that you recognized a package from our Experimentation Department or the fact that you know we have one." She said honestly.

"Of course I know we have one, I created it." he said.

"I knew there was a reasonable explanation." She said and resumed her seat looking at the stars.

"So, will you tell me?" Tony asked her. "IT has something to do with Rail-way's complains about you locking up in the workshop." He stated.

"Yes, actually, I got an idea and I have become somewhat obsessed with it." she said smiling. She knew she sounded like Tony but she would never admit it.

"I was going to ask you to help me actually, I tried to get it done for a presentation but it will take decades if I do it alone." She said.

"I'm more than happy but you'll have to tell me."

"Ok, so I have this friend, from college, he's like eight years older than me but we were good friends. He is diabetic and a few months ago he lost his leg. He uses a fake one but we talked about it and he told me how difficult it is. Soooo, after studying your blueprints on the suits…."

"My blueprints?"

"Yes, I decided I could make functional limps for handicapped people. I'm actually at a very good point and I was going to ask for your permission anyway. However as I was signing some papers one day it hit me. Why only limps? Why not hearts, or lungs, or livers? Why not make the handicapped walk and the blinds see?" she said being in ecstasy.

"Watch out for it girl, you can't play God, it ends up bad." He said trying to ground her. Tony Stark was trying to ground someone! Well, that was for the news!

"I'm not playing God, Tony, I'm just assuming and I'll try to every extend I can. You made a major breakthrough with Iron man and I tell you we can save people. So that package was a nano-fabric that's not exactly our technology." She confessed.

"What do you mean?"

"We found it at Wayne Enterprises when we bought the company. Our department upgraded the material. I believe I can use it for creating a heart." She said.

"Whatever you believe in, I'm in and I'll help you as far as I can." Tony said.

"Thank you, Tony." Mildred said.

"So, you found it at Wayne Enterprises?" Tony wondered.

"Yes, in the basement. It seemed that there was a ghost department running down there. Guess what else we got." She said smiling.

"What?"

"Crazy cars and motorcycles, smart weapons, bullet proof suits and a dozen of other gadgets." She said surprising him.

"I didn't know Wayne was making those stuff." Tony said surprised. He had never actually known Bruce, they had met only once and God, did he envy the bastard. His father looked like he breathed for him.

"I think they were supposed to vanish, burn or something but we managed to find them for some reason." She said.

"What happened there, all those people, Wayne, I should have gone there, they should have let me." Tony said tightening his fist.

"I don't think there was anything you could do. They would have triggered the bomb, or worse, they could have captured you and anyways you got to stop risking your life like this. One nuclear bomb was enough for you." Millie said not looking at him. Tony turned towards her; her eyes were shining like she was ready to cry. None of them had forgotten that day in New York. Pepper had been on her way to D.C and Millie had been left with baby Eddie back in the mansion. Tony hadn't thought about what would happen to them after he died; only what would happen to them if he couldn't stop the intrusion and that thought had terrified him. However, Millie never forgave him about that and he knew that deep down, Pepper hadn't either, but that was what he had become and they had accepted him. He would do anything to keep them safe.

"I saw him you know." Millie said out of the blue.

"Who?" Tony asked.

"Bruce Wayne, I saw him in Paris, the day I met Rogers." She explained like it was the most logical thing in the world.

"That's not possible, Wayne died three years ago." Tony said looking for that bottle of wine Mildred had been holding.

"Are you sure? They said he died but they found no body." She said.

"You're being paranoid." Tony said getting that bottle from under the chair.

"I don't think so, you know I met his butler, Alfred, on my trip to London?" she said.

"Yes, I remember, you recorded his voice for TARDIS." Tony said.

"Well, the things he told me… Do you think Bruce Wayne was Batman?" She said looking at him.

Tony's first reaction was to laugh. "Bruce was a businessman…"

"Yeah, because it's not possible for a billionaire to suit up and fight crime trying to find redemption in his actions." Millie cut him off smirking. Tony gave it a thought; it was not totally crazy.

"Think about it; the stuff we found, Wayne's death right after Batman exploded with that bomb, and all the times Wayne disappeared Batman did too, and when he came back so did the Dark knight." Millie said.

"If that's the case then you can't have seen him, Millie, he must have died during the explosion." Tony said knowing that was only partially true.

"I don't know; I'm positive I saw him, he just walked down the street with a beautiful woman and he seemed if not happy, calm. I just wish it's true." She said and sat up. Tony looked at her. He had envied the bastard for many years but looking back now he wished Millie was right. He knew what it is to be everyone's target and trying to help the world getting nothing in return. Only Tony did get something, he got Pepper, Bruce just lost everything.

"Dad, can I ask you a question ?" Millie said getting up.

"Dad? It must be something really serious." Tony said getting up himself.

"Would you shut up and listen?" she said.

"When did you realize you were in love with Pepper?" she asked him surprising him.

"Don't tell me you fell in love with Rail-head" he said getting a smack on the head for it.

"Of course not and even if I had I wouldn't ask you." She said crossing her arms.

"Why do you ask then?" Tony asked her confused.

"I just want to know, curiosity." She said shrugging her shoulders.

"Oh, well, if that's the case then you should ask me when I let my self accept my love for her 'cause I knew she was trouble the first time I saw her burst into my office." Tony said walking inside reliving the memory.

Mildred smiled at his back. Tony Stark could be very romantic.

"I knew she was in love with me and I was frustrated she just didn't succumb but I guess I was very selfish to admit the nobility of my feelings. One trip to hell changed everything." He said turning to face his daughter grinning hiding his sadness.

"You are one romantic full, Anthony Stark." Millie told him and kissed his cheek before walking to the end of the corridor.

"Are you sleeping here tonight?"

"I heard someone is to leave first thing in the morning." She told him and disappeared in the dark.


	8. Patching Up

Patching up

New York had been bad, really bad. Missions had followed but nothing had been like that and Tony thanked God that Eddie had been too young to remember anything. He didn't like it when he came home wounded. Pepper had gotten used to it, if anyone can get used to something like that. He would have Jarvis scan him and she would know exactly what needed to be done in less than a second. She had become his personal nurse which it was both exciting and relieving for Tony who despised hospitals. It wasn't the same for the kids though. The first time, they had to actually sleep with them in order to convince them he wouldn't die. Marie had followed him around for almost a week and Edward just hid his tears. It was then that he realized he had to take more care of himself and he wouldn't go home in need of a doctor. SHIELD had been a real help with that cause as they would return to the headquarters after their missions and they would get examined by a SHIELD doctor. However, the last mission went slightly out of plan.

Everything had gone wrong. He had had a feeling since the moment he left the house that something had been wrong. It should be easy, taking down the missiles and capturing the bad guys but they had something big, really big and when it hit, everything went black. All Tony could remember was someone screaming his name and a hoarse voice whispering in his ear as he felt his heart tightening.

"_Nice thing-y, this E.M.P, don't you think? Don't tell me you can't feel euphoria claiming you? No? Well, don't worry you'll live, they are going to save you and then… you'll lose everything. I'll take them away from you." _

He'd woken up to Banner re-synchronizing his RT and had flied away almost taking the poor scientist with him. He fell in the garden before he could land properly. Pepper and Millie ran outside gasping at his sight. Fumes were coming out of the misshapen suit and Tony seemed unable to move.

"Tony!" both of them yelled and ran to his sight.

"Jarvis, scan him." Pepper yelled but the computer had already been on it.

"I already did it, Mrs. Stark; Mr. Stark has cuts on his forehead, main body and hands, a sprained ankle and it looks like the arc reactor is out of synchronization.

Hearing he had no broken limps, Pepper pressed the button on his neck to get him out of the suit and check him herself.

"We need to get him to the workshop, fix the reactor now." Millie said.

"Pepper, Pepper." Tony said trying to focus on her face.

"I'm here Tony, stand up for me, now, help us get you down." She said and the two women got his arms around their shoulders and led him in.

"Are you ok? Are the kids ok?" he kept asking all the time through short and painful breaths.

"Everyone's ok, Tony, stay with us." She said. Marie and Ed were standing on the stairs crying silently. They had learned that screaming and crying did not help at moments like that. When Millie and Pepper disappeared in the workshop they tried to follow but Jarvis blocked the upper door.

"Sorry, children, but it is better if you stay here." Jarvis said.

Pepper laid Tony on the medical chair as Millie grabbed a device from a shelf somewhere on the back. She attached the wires to the RT and typed a few numbers on the keyboard.

"It seems someone already tried to fix him up but iron head here was too eager to get home. It's going to take a couple of minutes, it's familiar ground after that." Millie said trying to calm Pepper down.

"How could this happen?" Pepper asked her not understanding how the arc reactor could get damaged.

"E.M.P" Millie said and sighed.

"I thought he fixed that." Pepper said a bit louder than she intended.

Tony winced and opened his eyes.

"Not exactly, I may or may not have been experimenting on one or another thing with the suit and I may or may not have neglected it." he said sitting up.

"How do you feel?" Pepper asked him.

"Tired and beaten up but I'm thankful my heart it's not going to explode." He said smiling sad.

"Flying back here with a desynchronized RT is stupid Tony. Someone tried to fix you up, you should have stayed there." Millie said crossing her arms not feeling the same need to hug him as Pepper.

"I stayed until I thought I could fly." Tony said trying to get up but Pepper hold him down reminding him his ankle was hurt.

"Why did you not fly to the SHIELD HQ?" Millie kept on.

"Who put you in charge?" Tony said frustrated. It had been a bad night, he knew it was stupid of him to leave like that but those words had scared him to the bone. He had to make sure they were alright.

"Mrs. Stark, the kids are requesting permission to enter." Jarvis said giving them a picture of Marie and Ed standing behind the door.

"Can we come in?" a cute little voice was heard through the speakers.

"Let them come down, Jarvis." Pepper said walking to the pharmacy. "We'll talk about this later." She added referring to her husband and daughter.

The two kids walked in cautiously and stood by their father.

"What's up, hot shots?" Tony said smirking at them.

"Are you ok?" Marie asked him.

"I'm fine now." He replied and got her on his laps wincing on the pain.

"Why was that yellow?" Ed asked him pointing at the arc reactor.

_He got tired of the colour. _That was the first thing Tony thought of answering but after many arguments and fights with both Millie and Eddie he had concluded that the truth was better even if it hurt a little.

"Because someone tried to damage it but it's ok now, Millie fixed it." Tony said and Eddie nodded. There were times Tony worried about his eldest son; he had the tendency to keep everything inside him and lock everybody out, everybody except Millie. He trusted her and even though they fought often they had a special bond. It was a brother and sister thing Tony could never understand.

"Anyone who wants to help patch up daddy?" Pepper said trying to smile as she approached.

Marie and Edward helped putting on the bandages and pointing at wounds that maybe she had missed. Millie helped her with the ankle that, according to Jarvis, required a splint for a few days, something that off curse did not miss from their infirmary.

"I think you're over reacting." Tony told his wife.

"Jarvis said you need this."

"And may I remind you sir that I'm never wrong. Should you lose the splint in less than three days and start walking you would face severe problems…."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, Jarvis, I know, I've heard it hundreds of times. At least I get to use round legs for three days." Tony said getting on a wheel chair he had designed a few years ago when he had broken his leg and had to stay in bed for over a month. Of course it had proven a good investment too that allowed people to be more independent than usual wheel chairs allowed them to be.

He took both kids on his laps and headed to the elevator hitting the speed button.

"See you upstairs, sweethearts!" he yelled and disappeared.

Pepper could hear the screams and the laughter as she and Millie walked up the stairs. She was still worried about her husband but she could not just love the way he calmed their kids down. He had come to be very good at it. The same did not go for Millie though, she was still mad at him and Pepper knew why.

"Don't worry, Millie, he's fine now." She calmed her down.

Millie looked at her and sighed. That was Pepper, always trying to calm them down but who would calm her down? Who would be there to keep her going and make her relax if something happened to Tony? That made Millie mad, his selfishness and non existent impulse control.

"He's such a…" she said but stopped at her glare. "Can't he see he's killing himself? Is it so damn difficult to just hold back a bit?" she said instead.

"Tony does not hold back, he gives everything. He's too big, too loud, too rich, too smart, too charming, too childish, he's too much of anything he is and we wouldn't like it any other way, right?" Pepper said trying to hide her worry behind her smile. "Never tell him that, and besides I think he may have a reason to act so dangerously." She said as they reached the floor.

Tony and the kids were running around with the moto-chair playing around with its gadgets. Pepper clapped her hands to make them stop.

"Code red is over and the little minions need to go back to bed. You got school tomorrow." She said. Ed and Marie kissed Tony goodnight and followed Millie upstairs. Tony sighed at his daughter's glare and followed Pepper to the kitchen. He felt like having a glass of bourbon.

"She's right you know." Pepper said as she handed him his drink. They had been together for too long for her to know when he needed something before he even knew it.

"She's too smart not to be but there was nothing I could do." Tony said taking a sip. Pepper purred some bourbon in a glass and took a sip too. Tony cursed himself inwards. Pepper never drank this late; he must have scared her to death.

"Do tell me your excuse Tony, and you better have a really could one if you don't want to prove your daughter right." Pepper said looking straight to his eyes. He thanked God she had kept the lights off so she could not see his face.

"We had everything planned to the slightest detail. We stayed a whole day in that conference room, planning our every move but when we got there…" his voice trailed off.

"I don't even know what hit me, Peps. One moment I was crashing missiles and the other I was laying down feeling my life abandon my body." He said looking down knowing she would be crying by know.

"I don't remember a lot of things but I do remember a man whispering to my ear. God, I'll never forget his words Pepper." Tony said and took a deep breath.

"_Don't worry you'll live, they are going to save you and then… you'll lose everything. I'll take them away from you."_ Tony repeated and heard Pepper gasp.

"Oh my God." Pepper said and rounded the kitchen bench to get near him.

"I just couldn't wait. I was feeling better when I woke up, I didn't think if Banner had finished fixing me up, all I could think was to get here on time, to save you." Tony said raising his head to meet her eyes. She was crying, he knew she would and he hated himself every time it happened.

"You're here now and nothing is going to happen." Pepper reassured him and kissed him.

"What about the times, I'm not here? Pepper, I received an open threat and you are the first target!" Tony yelled but Pepper calmed him down.

"We're always the first target, Tony, that's how things have been for as long as I have known you. I can't even count the times I had been threatened and attacked by antagonists and that was way before we marry. You're Tony Stark, it's part of the deal and I knew it from the start." Pepper said.

"It's not the same Pepper, these people are terrorists, they have weapons I could have designed had we not stopped the weapon production." Tony said not sure what he was trying to prove.

"We have you, the man that saved the world from a wacko god and his alien friends and when you're not here, we got SHIELD agents and military people watching out for us. The least we can do is double our guard; we won't lock ourselves in because of a threat." Pepper said and moved them to the elevator.

"Ok, I'll have to tell Fury I guess and I really don't like it, plus I'm upgrading all security systems first thing in the morning." Tony said getting in the elevator.

They stayed quiet for a moment until they reached their floor and got out.

"How about a ride to the bedroom?" Tony suggested smirking.

Pepper smiled and sat on his laps. That was his way of coping with tough things. He retreated to his usual, old self.

"Off we go, captain." Pepper said.

"No, Pepper, don't call me Captain, it reminds me of Rogers." He whined and she laughed hard covering her mouth in order not to wake the kids up.

"I believe you have poor impulse control, Mrs. Stark." He said having Jarvis opening their door as they got lost in the darkness of their room.


	9. Bad things do happen in Monaco

Bad things do happen in Monaco

The last time Tony had been in Monaco he had been attacked by a Russian wacko while trying to fulfill his childhood dream due to his –inevitable- at –the- time- upcoming-death.

This time he was there to see his team win the city circuit while he would be in the garage along with his whole family. It had been a few weeks since his last mission and he was still very precautious about leaving them, especially at such a long distance. That was one of the reasons he had picked the kids up from school on Friday afternoon and ran off to the airport before Pepper could protest.

"We need some time off!" he had exclaimed and they had left it at that. Of course he knew she knew the real reason behind this sudden trip but she knew better than to argue with him about that. He had even persuaded Millie to follow them, which was not the hardest thing to do since she desperately wanted a way out of all the business work and she loved F1. It had been one of the first things she had done with her father after they had both come to terms with their –different- situation.

They stayed in a hotel right next to the circuit and they woke up every morning by the sounds of F1 cars. Pepper and Logan weren't actually fond of the alarm clock but no matter how much they whined nothing could change.

"How come and you let Rail-head behind?" Tony asked his daughter as they were waiting for the kids to change and take a walk around the city before the race.

"I told him to come but he was not very fond of the idea. He literally cannot handle the noise." Millie said looking out the window from the lounge room of their suite.

"Really?" Tony frowned.

"He even bought ear-shields, big, red ear shields that cover half his head because my music gets him a headache." She said laughing at the memory. Tony burst into laughter too.

"It took me a lot of time to find where he got them. It seems he has a cousin working for a military lab, they use them to cover their ears during explosions' test." She said laughing even harder following her father.

"I can't believe that kid!" he said.

"Who are you two making fun of?" Pepper said walking pushing Logan's baby carrriage with Marie and Edward following her sharp.

"Rail head" Tony said trying to compose himself.

"Poor Riley; why don't you give him a break?" Pepper said rolling her eyes. At that Millie got her cell phone out of her purse and showed her a picture of Riley in said headphones while doing paperwork. She tried hard but she too burst into laughter.

"Oh, Mrs. Stark, don't be so harsh on the kid." Tony faked a professional tone which made everyone laugh.

They took a walk around the city enjoining the little freedom they had. At this time of year Monaco was full of celebrities, so reporters and paparazzi could only be in so many places. Unfortunately one of those places was the playground.

They had pasted that damned playground a dozen of times and Edward and Marie started whining that they wanted to play. As it was a holiday weekend Pepper let them have fun and got their youngest son out of his baby carriage to put him in the swing. Tony followed her and Millie went down the street to get some coffee.

"Isn't that Millie Stark?" she heard a voice say and eyed him carefully without turning around. Bloody paparazzi! She paid and left trying to hide her face as much as she could only to confirm the man's suspicions.

"Ms. Stark, wait, a few questions!" he said and ran after her.

"Not in the mood of answers." She replied.

"Is it true you've been working on functional limps for the handicapped?" he asked but she ignored him.

"Rumors have it you claim you can create an artificial heart, is it true? How do you feel playing God?" again no answer.

"Is it true you have been in a relationship with Riley Rogers, your P.A?" he asked and she stopped at that. She smiled her I-want-to-smash-your-face smile and handed him her coffee.

"Would you mind?" she asked him and he lend her another hand for her extra cup.

"Watch, it's hot." She said and she spilt it all over him. "I warned you." She said as he spilt the other coffee on him as well and screamed out of pain.

Millie ran to the playground to warn Tony and Pepper. She found them swinging all three of their children. They were happy and they laughed. She stood there for a second thinking when it had been the last time she had done that; probably before her foster parents' death. She felt like she had never really been a kid and it was at times like this she felt like the odd one out, like the paraphony in an otherwise perfect melody.

"Millie!" Edward waved at her and flew out of the swing to meet her. She waved too, losing her melancholy and ran near them.

"We need to go, I met a very annoying paparazzi on my way here; I stalled him but not for long." She said.

Had the situation been different Tony wouldn't mind show off his family and let the world know how happy he is but he had come to realize that exposing his kids was the worst thing he could do to them. They were in danger just because they were his blood, imagine what would happen if they got as exposed as he got.

They got Logan back to his carriage and walked out but it was already late.

"Mr. Stark!" he yelled holding a camera in his hand. Tony looked at him but ignored him and kept on.

"One word, Mr. Stark, how do you feel being back in Monaco with your family? Last time things had gone a bit crazy." He said and Tony rolled his eyes.

"How do you feel being a husband and father in comparison with your former lifestyle?"

"Dude, come on, it's been five years!" he exclaimed.

"A picture with your kids, Mr. Stark; Mrs. Stark, Miss Potts?" He kept on and Tony halted at his spot letting Pepper and the kids walk away.

"Dude, please, I'm with my family trying to have a good time, why can't you let us enjoy our time in the playground? It's important to my kids. Do you have kids?" he asked him and he nodded.

"Good, then you know what I'm talking about, now please take this and let me be." He said getting his check book from his inner pocket. He wrote him a check and handed it to him.

"Thank you Mr. Stark but I'm not for sale." The man said smirking.

"Oh, I'm not 'buying you', that's for your camera." Tony said and snatched his camera throwing it on the ground and crashing it with his shoe. He smiled at the man and wished him good day running off to get to his family.

The race had been exciting and although they didn't win they got to the podium winning second place. Edward had been slightly disappointed but he got over it quite fast with a big ice cream after dinner.

"I think we should do that more often." Pepper told him before they got to bed.

"I have suggested that more than once, Potts." Stark said kissing her naked shoulder.

"We can't travel all the time." She whispered.

"Uhm, I disagree." He said.

"We got work and kids got school and I know you're going to say we can afford private teachers or that you'll invent some kind of A. I teacher but kids need some kind of normality." She said stopping him of what he was doing.

"You are a fun killer." He pouted making her laugh.

"We can always go to Paris next month but I was thinking something more private." She said biting her lip.

"Me and you, mon' amour?'' he asked her and she nodded.

"Me and you, no kids and no reporters. How about Greece, I've spotted a nice little island. We need some time alone, you know. " She said and he kissed her.

"I've noticed, you know we're lacking a combination of red hair and blue eyes, right? And I'm so dying to have a baby girl like that." He said covering them with the sheets.

Pepper could not sleep and Tony was not to blame. He seemed unease too, tossing and turning but his eyes remained closed. Pepper on the other hand felt like someone had plugged her in. For the first time after almost twenty years she felt like she could use a cigarette. She had seen a really scary dream. She didn't really remember what it was about but she could not stop shaking. The only think she could remember was Tony drinking back in the mansion and then crashing upon the Stark Tower in New York wearing the suit. He had looked terrible in her dream. She couldn't understand why but her instinct was telling her that something was terribly wrong. She shook his shoulder gently trying to wake him up.

"Tony, wake up."

"Logan's your son before the sun rises." He mumbled.

"Tony, please it's important." She said and got his attention. He opened his eyes and sat up yawning.

"What's up, Peps?" he asked her.

Pepper swallowed hard and tried to look calm.

"Baby, what's wrong, you're shaking!" Tony noticed and hugged her tight. This wasn't normal; it should be the other way around.

"I saw a very, very scary dream." She said sobbing trying to keep her tears back.

"What was it?" he asked her rubbing her back.

"I… I don't remember exactly, only that you put your suit on while you were drunk and you flew to New York to crash on the Stark Tower." She said and he frowned. That didn't sound pleasant.

"I must have been terrible." He commented. Pepper nodded against his chest.

"You were, I don't know why." She said calming down. She got free from his embrace and looked at his eyes, illuminated by the blue light of the arc reactor.

"Tony, I want you to promise me something." She said but he didn't respond.

"If something happens to me…"

"No, no, nothing is going to happen to you…" Tony said shaking his head violently.

"Listen to me Tony! If something happens to me, if something happens to all of us, don't lose yourself in the dark. I don't want you to destroy your self; promise me you'll be strong and that you'll keep on helping people both as Anthony Stark and Ironman ok?" she said with her hands on his face.

"I don't give promises I can't keep." He said covering her hands with his.

"Damn it Stark, I'm serious! I need to know that you can be there for our kids if something happens to me, that you will not crash down all that we built together!" she yelled and she was shaking again. She knew how dependant Tony was and that was the meaning of that dream. She had to know he could handle something like that.

"Are you dying?" he asked in a very serious tone taken her aback.

"No, I'm not, why would you think that?" she asked him.

"I don't know, the whole conversation about you passing maybe? Besides I wouldn't be surprised if you were dying and hiding it from me just to get back at me." He said making her roll her eyes.

"Tony I'm not dying and this is serious. Now promise me." She said.

"Promise you won't die, not ever, not before me." He said looking quite serious.

"I can't promise you that!" she said and he pointed a look at her. "It's not the same!" she said but he really didn't seem ready to back off. She sighed heavy.

"Ok, I promise." She said and he smirked.

"Ok then, if you keep your promise I will keep mine." He said and lied down again.

"We got a flight tomorrow." He said and got her back down.

The next morning they got to the plane alone, without Tony. He had been called by SHIELD the moment they had reached the airport. Both Starks had been worried about the phone call and Tony spent more than an hour making sure it wasn't a fake one. That earned him two more calls by Fury. They had a situation in the Middle East and he had to go there immediately. Pepper didn't like that. That feeling had not let her and her worry had increased as they were taking off. She sat on her seat going trough a few reports from various departments occasionally trying to get Millie do the same rather than watching Lion king with babies, but that had failed.

They were over the Atlantic when the night fell. Soon they would be within the America's air space and their worries would end. Nothing was going to happen; they would have the "birds" watching out for them.

"Look mum, a spaceship!" Edward said.

"Ship!" Logan echoed from his chair. Pepper looked out the window at the little lights that were getting closer. That was not good.

"Jarvis, is there a verified aircraft flying with us?" she asked the computer.

"No, Mrs. Stark. I have already ran a scan and asked for code number but they don't answer. I contacted the military air force and they will be waiting us as soon as we enter our airspace. Mr. Stark is on his way too." He said not making Pepper feel safe at all.

"Kids, come on here." She said gathering them around her as Millie ran past them.

"Where are you going?" she asked her.

"If we are going to be attacked, I'm not going to sit back and watch them." She said and disappeared in the pilot's cabin.

The plane started maneuvering avoiding the missiles coming towards them.

She could hear Millie cursing from the inside.

"I'm coming, Pepper, hung on!" she could hear Tony yell through the speakers of the cabin.

"Daddy's coming, daddy's coming." She kept saying trying to calm her children down.

The last thing she saw were flames coming from the back of the plane and her babies screaming.


	10. Lost

Lost

_Everything was black and cold. His heart was cold. He pushed and pushed but he couldn't go fast enough! He wouldn't make it. Inside his head the screams of his children were killing him. He couldn't let them down, he couldn't let them go. He had to go faster! Then in the silence of the night a deafening noise hit his ears and a hideous orange cloud appeared in the sky. _

"No!" Tony screamed jumping off the bed. An instant pain went through his whole body and felt like his flesh was tearing apart.

"Hey, calm down, Tony; lay down, you got too many wires attached to you to be playing badass right now." Someone said. He expected Pepper's voice but he realized the voice was deeper and heavier.

"Rhodey" he whispered his voice weaker than he had expected and his throat dry and soar.

"I'm here buddy, don't talk, you need to rest." He said trying to lie him down. Tony resisted and sat back instead. He looked around, he was in a hospital. There were about four IV's hanging next to him and a dozen monitors checking his vitals. His leg was broken and his back was soaring.

"What happened?" Tony asked his friend wondering were Pepper was and why wasn't she there worrying and yelling at him.

Rhodey did not respond; he looked at him with empty eyes and turned away. He was dreading that moment. All those days he waited for Tony to wake up he kind of wished it wouldn't happen. He wished his friend could wake up with a total amnesia or not wake up at all, for how could he tell him such a thing? How could he speak the words that would make it all real?

"Where's Pepper?" Tony asked worried. Something was wrong.

"Why don't you answer me, Rhodey? Where's Pepper, why am I here?" he yelled at him.

"Don't you remember?" Rhodey asked him not turning around. As a soldier he had learned not to cry but his voice was weak and it barely left his lips.

Tony frowned and then his eyes became wide as the memory hit him. He had been late, he hadn't saved them.

"No, no, no! It can't be true James, tell me it's just a bad dream." Tony begged his friend trying to hold back his tears.

Rhodey shook his head and turned slightly. He was crying too but he had to be strong for his friend.

"I'm sorry, Tony, we were all too late. There was a bomb at the back of the plane; you tried to save them but even Ironman could not hold the aircraft. We found you underwater trapped under the plane. There was nothing left, Tony." He said trying to keep his voice steady.

Tony looked at him. He remembered now; the explosion, how he tried to hold the plane, how he had ended up in the ocean straggling for his breath. It had felt so good when the dark had finally claimed him.

"Why did you save me?" Tony accused Rhodey. His eyes were red and full of anger.

"Tony…" Rhodey sighed.

"Why did you sentence me in a life of torture and misery? Do you think you made me a favour Colonel? Do you think you saved my life, ha?" he yelled trying to get up breaking some of the wires causing all kinds of alarms to go off. Several nurses and doctors ran to the room but Tony didn't let them approach him.

"Back off! Don't you try and save me again, did you hear me?" he yelled to everyone.

"Save me no more!" he hissed at Rhodey who had found his strength again due to his friend's attack.

"Calm down, Tony." He tried again.

"Calm down? Calm down? I had a fucking bastard threatening me he would take all I had. They were all I had! My family, my kids, Pepper! They were all I had and now they are gone, dead, dust in the wind! I won't be able to kiss them goodbye, I won't be able to close their eyes! There was nothing left! How would you feel if it happened to you, ha? So, don't you tell me to calm down and don't you tell me I should be thankful to all of you that saved my life because I'm not! You fucking send me to hell!" Tony yelled grabbing Rhodey by the shirt.

Rhodey grabbed his hands and tried to free himself.

"Pepper would kick your ass all over the globe if she heard you say that." Rhodey told him and Tony froze. He let Rhodey down and looked at the window lost.

Pepper had made him promise. She had him promise her he would take care of himself, the night before the flight. She had had a bad dream, she had known. Somehow she had fucking known and she had him promise her he would be ok rather than tell him not to get on that fucking plane!

"Well, Pepper's not here and she won't be ever again." He said and felt a hand slapping his face.

"Anthony Edward Stark, don't ever say that again. We need to be ready and strong to find those bastards. We owe it to them." Rhodey said looking really angry.

Tony looked at him.

He would find them and he would burn them to Hell even if it would be the last thing he would do.

Suddenly he felt a sting on the back of his neck and raised his hand to reach it. The only thing he heard before blacking out again was Clint saying:

"What? He had to calm down."

He was released two weeks later. The doctors told him it would take about a month before he could use his leg again and gave him a lot of painkillers. But the pain would not go away. He locked himself in the Stark Tower refusing to go back to Malibu. He couldn't bring himself to do that; he couldn't walk into the mansion knowing Marie would not jump on him, knowing that Edward's boots would never get additional scars, Logan would never conquer the world, Millie would never visit again and Pepper would not be there to seduce him out of his workshop. He was a weak bastard and he hated himself for that.

He didn't go to the funeral. There were no bodies to burry so why make the effort? He had said that to Natasha when she visited him quite angry he hadn't appeared. That bought him another week in the hospital.

He didn't answer the phone. His phone never stopped ringing from the time he left the hospital. Reporters, family, company executives, everybody wanted to know what had happened and how Tony Stark felt. Well, Tony Stark didn't feel like answering and blocked the world out.

He couldn't run his company. He would never step a foot in that building again. He would never walk in the same corridors, touch the same walls and sit in the same chair. Never and that was his final decision. He couldn't pretend the world hadn't just come crashing down. He couldn't just get in there and head a meeting without feeling Pepper on his side, without waiting for the click-click of her heels to sound at the end of the corridor. He still thought he could hear that, sometimes, when he was sitting in his workshop. How was he supposed to continue Millie's project? How was he supposed to take in charge and give orders and keep on?

He couldn't live and that was final but he couldn't die either and that was pissing him off.

He had to avenge them.


	11. Welcome to Hell

Welcome to hell

Millie opened her eyes slowly. She was sore. She tried to move but she couldn't. It was like she was in a cocoon. She looked around trying to distinguish her surroundings through the dark. There was a beam of light coming from the back. It was really small and didn't help much but she could tell she was in a cell. She was tied against a chair in the middle of it.

Her head was pounding and she could barely feel her legs. What had happened? They had been kidnap that was for sure. She had been with the pilot maneuvering the plane to avoid the missiles when they saw the explosion on the back. She had ran to the cabin to help Pepper when someone hit her on the head. She remembered nothing from there. Were Pepper and the kids alive? She hadn't seen them in the cabin but she guessed the same people who took her must have taken them as well. So what they wanted from them?

She took a deep breath trying to make the pain go away. She tried to figure the ropes with her fingers and smirked.

"Amateurs" she whispered and realized how dry her throat was. She had to be out for quite long. Quickly she untied the ropes in her hand, waist and legs. Instantly a rush of blood went down her veins and made her want to scream. It was like a thousand needles were going under her skin. She tried to stretch and waited for a few minutes before the pain was over. She tried to get up and found she was still unsteady. She made an effort and reached the wall before collapsing.

She straggled to get up on her feet again and touched the wall. It was made of stone, cold and wet. They had to be underground. She made a few steps to the right and found a metal door. She kept walking trying to find a weak spot or listen something that could get her out of there. She reached the back wall finding that the beam of light was coming from a small whole on the top of it. She reached the last wall and her legs betrayed her again. She fell down and tried to catch her breath. She was really weak. She felt her body shake and tried to warm up. She put her head on the side, against the wall and closed her eyes.

If only her head stopped pounding. If only she could stop shaking, then she could come up with an idea and get the hell out of there finding Pepper and the children.

Suddenly she heard a door open and a light came from a whole on the base of the wall. Someone had entered the other room. She heard a baby cry and a woman trying to calm it down.

"Shut him up!" a man commanded.

"Maybe I'll do it if you stop yelling." A woman said. It was a familiar voice, it was Pepper! Her voice was a bit weak but it was still sharp and serious like non other than Pepper Stark Potts.

Millie smiled a little and pressed her ear against the wall to hear more.

"If you can't do it then I will." The man said. For a moment all she could hear was Logan's cry but eventually she heard Pepper sing a lullaby to make him sleep.

"You better teach him to be more quite or he won't live long." The man said.

"Where are Edward and Marie? Where have you taken them?" She asked him.

The man laughed in cruelty.

"Oh, they'll come back to you, for now." He said and left. The door was locked again and the light was lost. Pepper began singing again, her voice full of tears.

"Pepper? Pepper?" Mildred said hoping her weak voice could pass the wall. Pepper stopped for a moment but then kept on. Millie lied down bring her eyes to the whole. Unfortunately she could see nothing due to the lack of light but she hopped Pepper could hear her through it.

"Pepper!" she yelled but the door opened again covering her voice. She heard two kids yelling before the door closed again.

"Oh my God, you're back!" Pepper said sounding relieved. "Are you ok?" she asked them and they answered.

"We're ok, they are good to us." Edward said not sounding happy at all.

"What do you do?" Pepper asked them.

"They take us to a big room and we watch TV, play videogames and stuff. They feed us too." Marie said.

"Really?" Pepper said surprised.

"They call us Justin and Wendy." Edward said pissed off. "I don't answer when they call me Justin." He added. There was a big pause after that and Millie assumed there were hugs and kisses going on.

Time passed how much time nobody knew. It was like everything stood still in there. Darkness and nightmares were all one had. Millie sighed and let herself sleep. She was so tired and hungry and thirsty. At least she knew everyone was alive.

When Millie opened her eyes again she was not in her cell. She was in some kind of infirmary, hands and legs tied against the bed with an IV attached to her. She straggled to escape but it was in vane. It didn't take long before someone entered the room. It was a man, tall with broad shoulders; he wore military clothes and looked filthy. He looked at her and left returning with another man and a woman. The woman tried to check on her but Millie resisted.

"You may want to let her do her job, Ms. Stark if you don't want to die." The other man said. He was short; he must be shorter than her father, not very athletic with a military suit as well.

"Who the hell are you?" she barked.

"Did Tony Stark teach you no manners?" he said smirking at her. The woman told him something in a foreign language she didn't understand and he nodded.

"You may want to calm down or Dr. Ferreira will not be able to examine you. You know while you were "asleep" you got bit by a rat and you may want to listen to her if you want to stay alive." The man said. Millie stopped and looked at her leg. There was a big nasty bit on it. The doctor examined her for a few minutes and then took the IV out.

That hurt.

She left as soon as she finished and let her alone with the two men.

"So what do you want from us?" she asked him.

"The access codes to the company for one." He said and made her burst into laughter.

"That's not going to happen." She said but he didn't find it very funny.

"Well, let's not make big statements, shall we? How about discussing something else for now, ha? I've heard you are quite smart." He said. She snorted.

"Lies, my IQ is lower than that of a cockroach." She said and he smiled.

"Oh, then I'm afraid that your little brother is of no use to us." He said and her eyes went wide open. What was going on?

"Don't you dare touch a hair on their heads." She threatened him.

"Right, I don't want to raise the wrath of the Stark. Oh, wait, he thinks you're dead. Hm, now that's a bit disappointing." He said.

Millie was taken aback. Tony thought they were dead? Oh, God, what would they do? Why would they do that? What did they want?

"What is it that you want? Guns? You don't want money that much is obvious." She said.

"Oh, it's much more complicated than that. Maybe you would understand it if I explained it to you but I won't. What I want right now is this." He said showing her a picture.

"Where the hell did you find that?" she asked him not believing her eyes. It was a prototype Tony had built but never sent to production. It was a space weapon, meant to kill every satellite that was targeted. It had never get out of the workshop, Millie herself knew it only because she had come across it in the museum of junk, Tony called storage. How had he found a picture of it? Had he hacked into Jarvis system?

"I didn't hack into your special computer, I'm not that smart. Let's say I got friends that talk, a lot." He said.

"I can't build it. Even if I wanted I couldn't. I don't know how it works, I've never seen the plans of it, all I have is a picture just like you." She said and the man hit the wall.

"Don't mess with me, girl. You are very smart to build this think and I know it. If you don't we'll send your brothers and sister back to daddy in pieces. Do you think he'll find a way to glue them back together?" he said smiling evilly.

Mildred wanted to smack his face right then and there. Had he no soul?

"I didn't think so. So you better get this figured out and soon." He said and turned his back on her. "Oh, and don't play any tricks on me, if you build anything else rather than said weapon I'll kill them all." He said and left.


	12. All we have is one another

All we have is one another

Millie was thrown back to her cell with her eyes covered and her hands tied. The door closed and she was left alone in the dark again. She tried to get free but she failed. They had been more careful this time. She took the cloth that cover her eyes and bend down to the hole that connected her to Pepper's cell. She passed the cloth through it and waited. Someone would notice it; she just hoped it wasn't a guard.

After a while she felt the cloth being pulled away. She grabbed it tight and whispered.

"Jump, jump up and high…"

"Fly up to big, blue sky." A little voice finished. Millie sighed.

"Edward is that you?" she asked to make sure.

"Millie! Are you ok? We thought…" the little boy said with a trembling voice.

"I'm alright, Eddie, are you ok? How's mum?" she asked him.

"We are ok but mum looks like she's afraid." He said whispered.

"Where is she now?" she asked him.

"She's asleep, I'll wake her up. Millie, we're going to get back home, right? Dad will save us." Eddie said.

"Yes, he's Ironman after all." She said and heard his steps fading. He would save them if he knew they were alive.

"Millie?" Pepper said. Her voice was weird, she had been crying.

"Pepper, I'm here, I'm in the cell next to yours." She said.

"Oh my God, you're alive, we thought you died." Pepper said relieved. At least they were all alive, for now.

"I'm fine, how are you?" she asked him.

"A bit abused but in one piece. They want the company's codes." Pepper said.

"I know they asked me too but I think it's a lot bigger than that. They asked me to build S.T.K OO7." Millie told her and Pepper gasped.

"How do they know about that? I think Tony designed it when he was still in college or something." Pepper said and sighed. "They're into something really big. I should have listened to him." She said and started sobbing.

"What do you mean?" Millie asked her.

"Tony told me that those people in Mexico were building something big. Something even he couldn't bring to imagine. He told me… the man who attacked him threatened him he would lose everything." Pepper said now fully crying.

"It's ok, Peps, don't cry, we'll figure it out." Millie said trying to calm her down.

"Do you think Tony will be able to save us?"

"Tony thinks we're dead, Pepper." Millie said and heard her gasp.

Tony thought they were dead. He had probably seen the explosion while trying to save them. Oh God, he would probably believe it was his fault they had died! If he hadn't killed himself by now he would be lost inside his mind. She had seen him lock himself away from everything and anyone, getting lost in the labyrinths of his mind with hundreds of self destructive thoughts and nightmares chasing him. It was a terrible experience and usually there were only two things that could get him out of there. His work and his family; with them gone he was sure to stay there and they would be doomed.

"Don't worry, we'll find a way out, we'll contact him." Millie said but Pepper was already gone.

Millie lied back, supporting her back against the wall. She tried to understand all the new information she had received and make sense.

They wanted the codes and they wanted to destroy Tony. That much was clear. With them dead Tony would get out of the equation; there would be no Ironman. So the world was unprotected. But why not kill them? Why keep them alive?

One would think they wanted Millie to make the weapon and used the Pepper and kids as a threat. It was far safer than kidnap them and ask Tony for something like that. However it was not that.

Pepper said they had something big. Tony had been hit by an E.M.P. It was what the satellite killer used. So, maybe it wasn't what they wanted exactly, maybe it was part of a bigger plan.

But why did they want the codes?

And what were they doing with Edward, Marie and Logan? Why were they so good to them and why did they call them by different names?

Maybe someone wanted revenge from Tony and it looked like it was a well designed and long term plan.

She had to find out what was going and she had to contact Tony the faster she could.


	13. Searching

**Author's note:**

**StarkObsessed you are my savior! THANK YOU SO MUCH for your review. It really got me up and back to the keyboard. You've followed this since the beginning and all i have to say is... I dedicate this story to you.**

**(I dedicate it to RDJ too but unfortunately he will never read this ...)**

**thanks again!**

* * *

Searching

Tony took notes as he watched the safety footage from the Stark Force 1 upgrade. He had seen that video over a hundred times but he thought he could get more. There had been a bomb on the plane, one he couldn't get his hands onto just yet. The army had gotten the plane off the ocean and was running an investigation. But Tony couldn't rely on them, he couldn't wait and since he couldn't move either he would do the job.

Alone

Stark Force 1 had been for an upgrade before their flight to Monaco. He had the same people working for him for many years and he couldn't bring himself to think what had gone wrong. He watched the footage over and over again noting anything suspicious but he couldn't see any clear action. How had this man passed the bomb inside and why did they fire missiles towards the plane since they had a bomb?

He had seen the footage from the airport in Monaco as well but there was nothing suspicious there. He had been one careful bastard.

"Uhm, Tony, are you ok in here?" he heard Banner ask. He didn't bother answering and just nodded.

"It's time for your medication you know and you need to eat before you take them." He said. "I ordered pizza." The man said. Banner had been his latest nanny secretly assigned by Fury who wanted to make sure he wouldn't lose an Avenger.

"I got work to do." Tony finally said. Bruce sighed. He was in a really bad shape. He hadn't shaved for days and he had lost weight. He didn't eat or sleep or take his medication about his leg. He was killing himself slowly.

"Tony you need to take this, the doctor said it's really important or your leg might get infected." Bruce said not daring take a step closer.

"You sound like my mother." Tony said not taking his eyes from the screen. "You and that fucking computer." He added.

"Ok, I just thought we could discuss Rhodes's findings during dinner." He said and caught his attention.

"What findings? Is Rhodey here?" Tony asked and it was Bruce's time to nod.

Tony barked pause and flew out of his workshop and up into the living room. Rhodey was waiting for him with a huge box of pizza.

"Tony you look like hell." The man said and meant every bit of it. His eyes were red, his hair was a mess, he had grown a messy beard and he looked very exhausted, like the time he had found him wondering in the desert.

"What do you got?" He asked him pouring a glass of blueberry juice. He had promised Pepper he wouldn't drink.

"A really good piece of pizza and some serious antibiotics." Rhodey said but Tony pretended he didn't hear it.

"Banner told me you found something." He said looking restless.

"I did but first I want you to sit down and eat something to take your medication." Rhodey said. Bruce had not followed him into the living room. He tried to stay as far from Tony as possible.

"Damn it, Rhodes, I don't have time for this!" Tony yelled.

"What do you got time about? Are you in a hurry to kill yourself?" Rhodey asked but Tony didn't answer.

"I'm trying to find this bastard and you are not helping me, you don't give me access to the investigation." Tony yelled.

"You would only hold us back." Rhodey said and Tony snorted. "You are in no position to think facts right. Look at you; what will you do when you find him? Put on your suit and blast him to oblivion?" Rhodes asked him.

"That's very much the idea, yes." Tony said sounding pretty serious.

"How? You use a cane to walk around, your leg has not yet recovered fully, you've lost so much weight and you're so weak you can barely walk let alone put on a suit that has the weight of a boat!" Rhodey said.

Tony looked at him fuming. He was angry and he knew Rhodey was right. He was not in the position to threat anyone. He had to take care of him if he wanted to avenge his family; he knew that, he just couldn't bring himself to do it. He had died that night too, he just stayed on earth long enough to find that murderer.

He took a few deep breaths and decided to sit on the couch. The same couch he had shared with Pepper after the battle with Loci. He took a slice of pizza and realized just how hungry he had been. He didn't even remember when the last time he had eaten was. He took another one and then another before taking the pills from Rhodey's hand and swallowing them along with some blueberry juice.

"Ok, now tell me." He said and took another slice. Rhodey joined him and started talking.

"We found one of the missiles. They had Stark Industries written all over them but it looked handwritten. It can't be one of yours." He said and gave him a picture. Tony shook his head.

"I would never make a thing like that. I may had been the 'merchanter of death' once but I got style." Tony said.

"We thought so. We found a few serial numbers I have for you, off the record of course. I had some people looking at those missiles. They found something, a tracking protocol, I have no idea what it is but they can't break it. I suppose you can do something with it." Rhodey said and gave him a small disk along with a paper.

"Any ideas where the missiles where made?" Tony asked him.

"Hand made, no way to track the supplies but I think your secret agency knows better." Rhodey said and got up as soon as Tony jumped on his feet.

"Thank you." Tony mumbled.

"Just be careful ok?" he told him and left. Rhodey understood him better than anyone. He didn't criticize him, he just tried to understand.

Tony got into his workshop again and put the disk in the computer.

"Jarvis, decode." He commanded. The computer succeeded into finding the code but the system had to be hacked anyway.

Tony started his hacking program and started breaking the walls one by one. He had been one smart guy the one who had made that. It took him several hours to get to the main program.

It was so disappointing. So many codes, so much work just to protect a base missile program. Set to follow the coldest target.

Coldest?

Now that was weird. Usually missiles like that used the engine temperature to follow the target. That meant follow the hottest target, which took only a smart guy to avoid it. Why follow the coldest? Especially over the ocean? That would get them directly into the sea.

That was it!

They wanted to distract them. To make them call him so he could see the explosion. What kind of animal had done this?

Tony couldn't bring himself to believe it. When he had told him he would lose everything he meant it in a very painful and sadistic kind of way. Now Anthony Stark was sure. There had to be a bigger plan.

"Sir, Mr. Potts is calling." Jarvis said.

"I'm not here." Tony said looking at the screen.

"It's the tenth time he calls this week, it could be something important." Jarvis said.

"Nothing important" Tony said and looked at the screen again. There had to be something in there. Something hidden. He just had to look very carefully.

"Who's that?" Banner asked out of nowhere.

Tony turned around to look at him surprised he hadn't heard him walk in.

"I came to check if you had calmed down. Who is it that calls all the time?" Bruce asked.

Tony sighed.

"Pepper's brother." He said and turned back to his computer only he didn't actually see the screen. He got lost in that world of memories again.

"I didn't know Pepper had a brother." Bruce said trying to make Tony talk. He had to make him talk or else his friend would explode.

"He's name is Jackson, he's her twin." Tony said and brought Jackson's face in mind. He looked a lot like Logan actually only he had blue eyes, just like Pepper. "He's a Physics teacher, one of those that make the lesson cool not the dull ones." He said remembering all the talks he had had with him and how he would explain the simplest experiment to the kids and make even Tony Stark fascinated. They didn't talk a lot; he had chosen to serve a noble purpose and had moved to Africa a few years ago to teach there.

"He just wants to ask me about what happened. He lives in Africa." Tony said narrowing his eyes at the screen. Maybe there was something in there after all not so hidden.

"You should answer him then, he has a right to know." Bruce said carefully but luckily Tony did not react.

"I'll answer him when I have something to tell him." Tony said. It was what Jackson had done when Pepper's dad had died. It had been sudden, Edward Potts had an issue with his heart but no one had seen the heart attack coming. He had been such a vivid guy it had been hard to believe it back then. Tony liked him, a lot, he had treated him like a real father and he had been very sad when Jackson called them to tell them the news. That's how Edward got his name and not out of a selfish, egomaniac joke of twisting Tony's name as everyone believed.

That thought sent him eons ago to relive that moment as they find out about Edward's death and Pepper got so shocked she went into labor the very next day.

Tony just sat there, his eyes fixed on the screen completely lost. Bruce approached him seeing he was calm to make sure he was still alive. He made sure his friend was breathing and took a look at the screen. It had to be the program Colonel Rhodes was talking about. Bruce didn't know much about missile programs but something seemed to be out of place. He shook Tony back to reality and showed him something on the right corner.

"What's this? It doesn't look like it should be there." Bruce said making Tony sit up in his chair and look closer.

Tony smirked briefly.

"The egomaniac bastard, even I didn't do that." Tony said noting the words on another screen.

"What is it?" Bruce asked again.

"It's a signature of the programmer. You can put one to every program if it doesn't bother you to be found. But now I get what all the fuss was about." Tony said running the signature in a data base of illegal programs.

"Thank you Bruce, I can't understand how I didn't see that from the beginning." Tony said.

"Sometimes all you need is a clear mind." Bruce said smiling. Tony did not answer straight ahead. He typed something on the keyboard and then looked at him.

"I guess I could use some help from time to time." Tony whispered but Bruce had heard him.

"Glad to be of service." He joked and left.

Tony searched and searched all night long finding a nickname of the programmer.

_Snap_

It was easy from there. Guys like him had past that usually ran down the network. They made programs and shared their betas through the internet to get known and they often used forums discussing about it. Tony himself had traces like that all over the internet. Of course he was already famous and need no one to tell him how good he was but as a kid he had find it intriguing. For a few days that was.

"Jarvis, search for our friend Snap and track his most recent activity." Tony said walking over the bench to get some bourbon. He had promised Pepper but it was way after midnight and he allowed himself one glass per day.

"Done, sir, most recent activity found yesterday at 4.00 am on JavaForum." Jarvis said.

"Ok let's track him down now." Tony said returning to his computers interfering Jarvis search when he thought necessary.

Finally, he got a name and an address.

"James Hoover from Orlando, currently living in Paris." Tony said.

He had found the edge of the knot.

"Jarvis, call agent Romanoff, tell her to come top secret and as fast as she can." He said and got to the bathroom to take a shower. He hadn't done that in ages. He looked at his broken leg; it was still a bit swollen. The doctor had said it had been smashed and even if the bones got back together, which in fact they had, it would take a lot of therapy to make him walk again. Of course Tony Stark had a different opinion. He would just invent something and he would be ok in no time. But for the time being he had to follow the doctor's orders much to his despise.

He looked himself in the mirror and finally saw what other people were talking about. He was not ok but he already knew that. He imagined Pepper yelling at him.

_Anthony Edward Stark, look at you! When was the last time you ate, the last time you slept? Don't you give a damn about yourself? Do I have to nurse you all the time? Go get shaved and shower and come back here to eat. I'm not in for excuses this time mister, you shower, you eat and you sleep; alone!_

He smiled sadly at the memory. It was like he could see her dragging him by the neck of his T-shirt and shoving him into the shower. She had been more than just a girl, than just his wife. She had been his friend, his lover, his nanny, his mother, his nurse, his doctor, his medicine, his connection to reality and in one word she had been his Pepper. They had grown up together and he could never imagine life without her. Yet, there he was, in front of the mirror, alone for the second time, and this time no miracle would bring them back together.

He turned the shower on and let the water ran down his back. It was so hot it hurt but he wouldn't have it any other way. He wanted to be hurt. He stood there until his skin had turned red. He got out and grabbed the razor from the sink. He had to be at his best to face the enemy. He couldn't afford to be weak; he had to be at his best to win.

He shaved leaving his usual goatee a little less artful than usual. He put on some after shave and used a few drops for his tired eyes. He got to his room and put on a dark pair of jeans and a black shirt. Getting out of the wardrobe his eyes caught a box on the bed. It had a note on it that said Riley. He must have sent it while he was hiding in his workshop. He recognized the box. It was a small wooden one Pepper used to put valuables in. He hesitated for a moment. He didn't know what he would find in it. He dreaded it would have pictures or things likes Marie's first shoes and Eddie's first card or Logan's cross.

He took a deep breath and opened it. He took the thing on top and closed it before he could see the others. He touched it and waited like a miracle would happen. It was his locker, the one that was connected to her and her ring. The one that he had made to remind him of when he neglected her, when they had been too far. Now they were too far but no matter how long he stood there looking at it, it would not glow.

"Sir, agent Romanoff has arrived." Jarvis said.

"Thank you Jarvis." Tony said and put the locker on hiding under his shirt walking out of the room.


	14. It's not what it looks like

It's not what it looks like

Natasha paced up and down in the living room waiting for Tony. She was wearing her office attire as she had kept her cover as an employee at the Stark Industries. She had been Pepper's P.A, mainly to protect her. Everybody knew Ironman had a weak spot and everybody knew she was it. So, she needed someone far more trained for the job but even Natasha had failed.

What Tony could possibly want? Their last meeting had not ended very well. He had refused to attend the funeral and she had been so pissed she had showed up in the very same living room and had kicked his ass so bad he spent another week in the hospital. She had been angry. Pepper had been her friend and she didn't deserve that, neither her nor their kids. She was really angry and Tony just happened to add the cherry on the top of cake.

They hadn't talked since then. None of the Avengers dared to show up. Then, suddenly she gets a phone call from Jarvis to show up in his penthouse fast and incognito. That meant only one thing, trouble.

Boy was she the one to get into trouble.

"Oh, Ms. Rushman, we're leaving at once." Tony said appearing in the room.

Natasha was taken aback not only by the use of her undercover name but by the looks of Tony. He still looked unsteady with that cane but he was fresh washed and shaved and seemed like his confidence had returned.

"What do you want, Stark? Why did you call me?" she asked crossing her hands in front of her.

"You're still my employee; I have the right to call you whenever I want." Tony said walking towards the bar. Natasha eyed him carefully. She had promised Pepper that if something happened she would make sure Tony would not go back to his old shelf.

"Blueberry." Tony explained purring a glass.

"Tell me what's going on or I promise to God you will never get rid of that cane." She said pretty serious. Tony signaled her to sit down. He found it difficult to walk these days. He really needed to practice more.

"I got a lead. James Hoover, Paris." He said and gave her a file.

"Who is he?" she asked him. She wasn't impressed he had found a lead before anyone else. He was Tony Stark after all.

"He's the one that programmed the missiles. They were the bait, to get me there." Tony explained. He looked very serious and focused.

"We can interrogate him and find the others." She said and Tony nodded.

"Why did you call me?" She asked him.

"No offence sweetheart but if I was in a position to get there and break his neck I would do this whole thing all by my self. As you see, though, I'm not capable of doing so just yet and I can't wait. I want you to help me and I want no one to know about it." Tony said his brown eyes looking very dark. He knew Natasha's dark past and that's why he had chosen her. She wasn't sure if he cared about her skills or her ability to kill so easy.

"Why do you think I'll do it?" she asked putting the file on the table.

"I don't think, you will do it." Tony said and he was right. She had agreed from the moment she had walked in. Pepper had been her friend and she was a good person. She wanted to avenge them all.

"I've scheduled a flight in three hours; we're supposed to make a professional trip to Paris. Pack your things and meet me at the airport in precisely three hours." He said and left. Natasha nodded and left as well.

She hoped they had a plan.

She drove to her apartment and grabbed the black bag she hid in the wardrobe, changed in a pair of black leather pants, a blue T-shirt and a jacket and left. She sent a memo to the office informing that she would be away with Mr. Stark and sent a message to the agency that she had to go away on a business trip. Further information was not required. Of course Fury did not buy and made his appearance to the airport.

He stood right in front of the gate waiting for her.

"What's going on, Romanoff? What is Stark up to?" He asked her in his firm tone.

"A business meeting in Paris." She answered. She was an ace when it came to lying.

"Stark doesn't go to meetings and I don't think he was in a condition to attend one the last time I saw him." Fury said.

"Work therapy." She answered and tried to leave.

"Why you? Why doesn't he take that kid, Rogers?" Fury asked. Natasha knew that no matter what she told him he would not believe her. He was smarter than that but she had promised.

"Rail-head is very whine-y, he whines all the time and he asks too many questions." Tony answered out of nowhere, hiding his blood shot eyes behind his glasses.

"Life goes on, right? I can't let what we build all these years fall apart now can I? It would be a blasphemy." Tony said and without another word he walked to the plane. Natasha followed him leaving Fury behind. He hadn't bought it and he would follow them, that was for sure and Tony knew it.

* * *

_He was in a field, a beautiful field full of flowers. He could hear a small river passing by and children laughing. He followed the voices to the bank of the river where several children were playing. He tried to recognize them but he knew none. A group of adults was sitting by the bank having some kind of picnic. They were well dressed like they belonged in some kind of movie during the '20s. They wore suits and hats and the ladies held umbrellas. It was really weird. Tony looked down at himself. He looked terrible, like he was some kind of beggar. His clothes were torn and dirty and his hands were full of wounds only his boots seemed to be brand new. How did he get there and why was he in such a bad condition? He approached the group thinking they could help him. _

"_Excuse me, where am I?" he asked but as soon as they saw him they screamed and ran away. _

"_Hey, where are you going?" he yelled and ran after them. He followed them to a small cottage. It was made of stone and had wooden balconies all over. There were three big trees outside and a white fence that protected a small garden. Tony approached and knocked on the door._

"_Open up! Please open up!" he yelled and a young man appeared on the doorstep. _

"_What do you want, Sir?" the man asked him. He couldn't be over twenty five; he had strawberry blond hair and a few freckles under his brown eyes. He wore a grey suit and looked like he was analyzing the world as he waited for his answer. Tony knew that look, he had seen it before. _

"_Where am I?" he asked him not so keen to get an answer but to buy some time and study this young man. He looked so familiar all of a sudden. _

_Someone yelled from the inside and he turned around to answer._

"_Somewhere you are not supposed to be." He answered and turned to leave. Tony grabbed his arm and held him out. _

"_Why did you leave when you saw me?" Tony asked him but he got no answer. Another man appeared in the doorstep and pulled the young man inside._

_This one was older. He wore a cream suit and had brown hair and brown eyes. He looked very familiar. His face, his look, that melancholy look he had seen several times. _

"_We don't talk to murderers." He said and closed the door at his face. Tony caught a glimpse of a young woman before the door closed. She had long brown hair and two loving blue eyes. Those eyes he had been in love with, all his life. _

"_Edward" he realized. _

"_Edward, open the door! Edward!" he yelled and knocked on the door. He was his son! Those were his kids! They were alive!_

"_What do you want, Stark?" His son asked him looking angry. _

"_You're alive!" Tony said and tried to hug him but Edward avoided him. _

"_Not the least." Someone else answered from the inside. Finally Edward stepped off the door and let Tony in. _

_It was a very cozy home with wooden furniture and big windows. There was a bunch of kids sitting all together on the floor. Looking at them he recognized himself among them at the age of ten, a redhead girl with big blue eyes that looked very familiar. _

"_We're all dead, Stark and this is heaven." The voice said again forcing Tony to look away from the children and into the kitchen. It was a woman around her fifties with chocolate brown hair and eyes that send daggers at him. _

"_Mildred." There was no doubt. _

"_What in God's name is a murderer like you doing here?" she asked but Tony couldn't answer. _

"_Your father is not a murderer." A familiar voice said. It was weak and somewhat older than he remembered but it was her voice. He turned around and saw an old woman sitting in a chair where the kids were. She had long white hair and unmistakable blue eyes._

"_Oh, my God, Pepper!" he said and ran to her side but the kids stood in his way not letting him touch her. _

"_Pepper, what's going on?" he asked her with tears threatening to get out of his eyes. _

"_You're dead daddy, we all are." Marie said getting his attention. _

"_I'm dead and I've gone to heaven?" he wondered looking himself in the mirror. He looked really old and had white hair as well. _

"_You left us, you abandoned us." Edward said._

_Tony looked at him. Suddenly they looked really angry all of them. _

"_No, I didn't, I tried." Tony said._

"_It's your fault we're dead, it's you they wanted not us." Mildred said. _

"_I know, I'm sorry, I tried." Tony said letting the tears out._

"_You should have stack to the cards Tony." Pepper said sounding very disappointed. _

"_I… I…" _

"_Do you think everything is a game, son?" Howard's voice came out of nowhere. He stood there next to Edward that was now a kid again. Tony looked around, they were all kids again and Pepper stood in front of him with her pencil skirt and that look that meant he had done something seriously wrong. _

"_Dad, no I… I didn't mean to… I hadn't thought…" Tony whispered._

"_You never think, do you Stark?" Pepper yelled at him._

"_You think no one but yourself." Millie yelled and everyone made a step towards him._

"_Oh, Anthony, if you keep doing that you'll end up alone, my boy." He heard a woman say. It was his mother. _

"_You let your family die, Anthony but vengeance cannot bring them back. Look around you, your whole world is ashes." She added and faded away holding little Logan in her arms._

"_No, mum, wait, don't go! Tell me what to do, don't leave me." Tony yelled but she had already gone. _

"_People don't leave unless you sent them away." His father said following Maria._

"_No, I didn't want to, don't leave, no Pepper, I love you." He said falling on his knees trying to hug her but all he got was air._

"_Open your eyes, Tony; nothing is what it looks like." _

"Stark, wake up!" Natasha said shaking him violently.

Tony opened his eyes and grabbed his seat like his life was depending on it.

"What happened?" He asked trying to remember where he was.

"You had a bad dream." Natasha said.

"No, it wasn't bad." He said and sat in his seat grabbing his tablet.

As soon as they landed they got to a black car and drove down town. They stopped in front of an internet café and got out.

"I thought he might use one of these." Tony said and walked in. Natasha followed him and scanned the place. It was small, around twenty maybe thirty computers, a bar and a cashier right across the door.

They got to the bar searching for the owner. Tony sat on a stool putting his cane on the bench making sure he got noticed.

"_You can't leave this here, Sir." _ The barman said in French.

"_I can do whatever I want and right now I want you to tell me where I can find James Hoover."_ Tony said in fluent French. Natasha was standing next to him ready for some 'persuasion'.

"_I don't know anyone by that name."_ the barman said and got back to cleaning the glasses. Tony got his cell phone out of his pocket and showed him a picture of Hoover. The barman took a look at it and shook his head.

"_No, I don't remember him."_ He said. Natasha hit the bench with her palm and leaned over.

"_Try just a little."_ She said in a threatening tone. The barman looked surprised but not scared enough to help them.

"_I don't know him."_ He said challenging her but right before she grabbed him by the collar Tony got a small package from the inner pocket of his leather jacket.

"I have a feeling that purple is your favourite colour." He said passing him the money. The man took the package and hid it in his pocket.

"So, how about now?" Tony asked him.

"He comes here every day around noon, he sits at computer four. He'll be here anytime now." The barman said and got back to the glasses.

Tony nodded and faced the street through the big glasses of the store.

"So we wait." He said.

"Not necessary." Natasha said and showed him a young man entering the café. He was around his thirties, not very athletic, with dirty blond hair and square glasses.

"He doesn't look like a terrorist." Natasha said.

"He looks like he just got a good deal of money, though. Those glasses are quite expensive." Tony replied and walked towards him. The man stopped in front of the cashier and looked towards the bar. He instantly fidgeted and turned towards the door walking a bit too fast.

"He'll run away." Natasha said.

"Don't miss him." Tony said and she chased after him.

He got through small alleys trying to miss them but Romanoff was hard to bit. They reached a dark alley away from the main street. Hoover thought he had lost them. He grabbed an old pipe that lied there and thought of walking away. Suddenly he heard a gun being loaded and turned around hitting Natasha with the pipe. The SHIELD agent grabbed the pipe and hit the man in the face.

"A!" Hoover screamed in pain covering his bleeding nose with his hand. He made a few steps backwards and hit his back in a wall.

"We're going to do this my way or the hard way." Natasha said and approached him. Hoover found a water pipe on his back and kicked it breaking it forcing all the water to agent Romanoff.

Natasha was blinded for a moment before she could see the target running away.

"Shit!" she cursed and ran. She took the corner on her left and stopped. Hoover was with his face on the ground and a cane was pressed between his shoulder blades.

"You were supposed to get him." Tony said looking at her.

"I guess that even crippled you are a lucky bastard." She said but Tony didn't laugh. People always said he was lucky because he was rich and brilliant but it was all those stuff people took for granted that Tony never had; His parents, friends, family. Maybe solitude was the price to pay for being who he was.

"Let's take him to a quieter place." Tony said and handed him over to Natasha.

They drove to a small apartment Tony had rented for their 'business'.

They got in and put Hoover to a chair.

"You are not going to tie me up?" Hoover asked scared.

"You are not going anywhere." Natasha said and sat on the table next to him. Tony took a pill and sat in a chair before him.

"What are you, drug dealers? I'm not a junkie, I have no money." Hoover said.

Tony left his cane on the table next to him and got his glasses off looking Hoover directly in the eyes. The man stopped and whimpered recognizing him.

"You are… Tony Stark." He said swallowing hard.

"No, Tony Stark died in a plane accident a few weeks ago; I am Ironman." He said looking very scary. Natasha had never seen him like that even though she had seen the look on his face before. It was the look of a man that wanted vengeance, no matter the cost.

"What do you want from me?" Hoover asked.

"You said you have no money, yet these glasses look too expensive for someone that doesn't have a job." Natasha said teasing his glasses.

"I got some money, recently." He said.

"You did, didn't you?" Tony barked at him making Hoover grab his chair for support.

"You know the only thing that keeps me from smashing you is that I want to find out who is behind all this." Tony hissed in his face.

"I don't understand." Hoover said shaking from his fear. Natasha watched them without interfering. She had done things like that a hundred times before and right now she knew two things.

James Hoover knew exactly why they were there.

Tony knew that and he was really pissed off.

"Five weeks ago there was an attack to Stark Force one over the Atlantic. Eight people were killed, Mr. Stark's family among them." Natasha said scanning him.

"I don't see what I have to do with it." He said, his voice being very steady. He had prepared for this. Natasha winked at Tony who got the message.

"Stark Force One was attacked with thermal missiles, but there was something weird about them." Tony said taking a few steps away from the man, caressing the table until he found his cane. "They headed towards coldness and not heat. Now why would they do that? How does one makes such a mistake?" Tony added.

"I don't know." Hoover said. His voice remained steady but his hands were sweating.

"Maybe it was not a mistake, maybe there is a plan. What do you think, James?" Natasha asked him grabbing his shoulders.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"I told you before, sweetheart, my way or the hard way. I just forgot to tell you that my way is worse." She said and pressed his shoulders in the right spots to make him scream.

"Who made you program those missiles? Who is behind this?" Tony asked him.

"I don't know." He said and agent Romanoff twisted his arm behind his back.

"No! Please! I can't… they'll kill me." He whimpered and Natasha pressed him back against the chair.

"I'll kill you, slowly and painfully, if you don't tell me." Tony hissed getting a long blade off his cane. Natasha's eyes popped out in surprise. That was something she didn't expect.

"No, no don't kill me, please! I didn't want to, I didn't mean to, I thought it was a project for the army." He whimpered but Tony didn't remove the blade from his chest.

"Speak, fast." Natasha said. The man swallowed hard not getting his eyes from the blade.

"I got fired three months ago; I owe people a lot, not good people. One day I got an e-mail that said I could get ten thousand Euros. It was a lot of money. We talked through an encrypted program; he told me he wanted a program for some army project. I thought it suspicious but he paid me in advance so… I never asked him, I never got his name, he used a nickname, Toronto531." Hoover said in one breath.

Tony pressed the blade more making him scream.

"You haven't talked since then?" he asked him.

"Once, he told me you would come and I shouldn't tell you the truth or he would kill me. Please let me go." He pleaded.

Tony looked at him with pity and hatred.

"Millie was working on artificial organs that maybe you would need one day. Edward was five and wanted to be an inventor just like his dad, Marie was a puzzle genius that at the age of four could beat Bill Gates, Sherlock Holmes and Kasparov with on hand. Logan was only a baby that would one day conquer the world and Pepper… Pepper was their mother and the love of my life. You killed them all, why should I spare your life?" Tony said narrowing his dark eyes at him, making his voice deeper than usual, scaring even Romanoff.

"I'm sorry, pal, I didn't know, I'm not a murderer." Hoover said. Tony looked Natasha and hid his blade in his cane again.

"Take him. I need his laptop and bank account number as soon as possible." Tony said to her and let her take him.

The door closed and he fell on his chair. He nearly killed a man.

That would make him a murderer. They would be right; the ghosts that haunted him would win. He was not a murderer; he would kill only one man, the man with the hoarse voice.

He got up and looked around. Maybe he had to get a few things from his apartment down town. He got out and walked to the car.

"Revenge will not make you feel better." Someone said making him stop.

"Who is it?" Tony asked.

"It doesn't matter who I am the only thing that matters is to listen what I have to say." The voice said.

Tony found the source of the sound in a dark spot under the balcony and approach.

"I don't talk to ghosts." Tony replied walking.

"But ghosts talk to you, don't they, Tony Stark?" the man said and got into the light. Tony stopped abruptly not believing his eyes. It couldn't be, it was only an apparition for how could he stand in an alley in Paris talking to…

"Bruce Wayne? It can't be you, you're dead." Tony said.

"I guess even the dead can talk." Bruce said.

"But you died; it was all over the news." Tony said remembering what Millie had told him. She had been right.

"It's not always what it looks like." Bruce said. Tony did not answer; the whole thing was surreal. He was supposed to be dead and yet they were talking in the middle of Paris.

"I know we've only met once and that you didn't like me, for your information the feeling was mutual, but where I failed you succeeded." Bruce said confusing him.

"I don't understand." Tony said.

"You don't have to. You need to see with your mind, Stark, not with your eyes. Not everything is what it looks like." Bruce said and tried to leave.

"You were Batman, weren't you? My daughter believed you were." Tony told him. Bruce stopped and smirked.

"She may still believe it." He said and disappeared down the dark alley.


	15. Where the mind wanders

_I have a confession to make: StarkObsessed I love you, you make my day with your reviews! ;)_

* * *

Mind wanders when the body can't

Millie collapsed on her chair; she couldn't work. It wasn't that she was weak, hungry and hot, no, she was worried. She was constantly hearing screams from the cell next door and she was cursing her self she couldn't find a way to save them all. They were abusing Pepper; they were hitting her and torturing her for those codes and Millie just prayed that was all they did. She didn't hear the kids anymore and that frightened her. What were they doing to them and where had they taken them?

She hit her head on the workbench and welcomed both the pain and coldness. They had brought her tools and parts to build the weapon. She had tried to fool them, to ask for irrelevant parts just to try and stall them, just like Tony had done when he had been kidnapped. However they never bought it, Markus had warned her.

Oh, how she hated that guy! After that day at the infirmary she had decided he was behind all these, only she couldn't quite figure his plan. He wanted to harm Tony as much as he could but she couldn't get the whole picture.

She couldn't function. She had to know Pepper and the kids were fine. She had to find a way to get them out of there, even if it was the last thing she would do.

She got up and walked to the door kicking it as hard as she could.

"Hey, guard! Guard, open up!" she yelled and stepped back as the door opened to reveal the tall muscular man.

The man said something incoherent in Swahili. After a few weeks in there, Millie had concluded they had to be somewhere in Africa. She couldn't quite tell where but she was sure those people had South African accent while she heard a few phrases that sounded a lot like Lion King.

Yeah, for a girl who spoke over ten languages, including Japanese and Greek, it was pretty lame to recognize a language by a Disney movie, but that was the truth.

"I want to see Markus!" she yelled narrowing her eyes at him. It was one thing nobody denied her. Markus was always available even though she couldn't understand why. It wasn't that he expected she would give him the codes or that she would have the STK007 ready in such a sort time.

Nevertheless the man appeared in her cell after a few minutes.

"You asked for me, Ms. Stark?" he said smirking. Millie just wanted to smack his face. He loved doing that. He would be acting like he was her employee or a servant while he was her captor.

"I can't work." She said crossing her arms.

"Is there something that you need?" he asked in that mocking tone again.

"No, I can't work, I need Pepper and I won't work until she's here, along with the kids." She said crossing her arms.

Markus laughed and it was an evil kind of laugh.

"This is not your company, my sweet thing, you are in no position to give orders." He said taking a few steps towards her. Millie rounded the bench and stood behind it keeping it between them for safety.

She knew she was in no position to give orders and that Markus was not one to bit with stubbornness. If she refused to work he would torture or even kill her until she was convinced to keep on. Millie was not stupid though, no. If Tony Stark could get out of that cave all those years ago so could she.

"Oh, and I thought there was something missing." She mocked him but he didn't lose his smirk.

"Look, I don't know how my father built this thing. It's not like I've known him my whole life, ok? He must have designed it years ago, when he was still in college and I really cannot figure this out. I need someone who knows him better than me, someone that maybe has seen this thing for real." She said as convincingly as she could.

Of course she knew how that thing worked and she was by no means confused by Tony's design. They had worked in far more complicated projects than that but she had to get Pepper and the kids in there.

Markus arched an eyebrow and looked at her suspiciously.

"Is there a chance Mrs. Stark can be that person?" He asked her.

"Unless you have a better suggestion." She said in a steady voice. She was pretty good at this. Thank God for all the times she had to lie to her supervisor when she was not found in bed, back in the orphanage.

The man scratched his head and seemed to give it a thought before he smirked again.

"I am not stupid, Ms. Stark, I know exactly what you are trying to do but nevertheless it's not a problem to me. If Miss Potts is what you want then Miss Potts you will get. It may turn to be in my favor after all." He said and left barking something to the guards before closing the door.

A few minutes later the door opened again and someone shoved Pepper in.

"Don't disappoint me, Stark mind." Markus said and locked the door.

"Oh my God, Pepper!" Millie said and hugged the other woman tight. She looked terrible. The jeans she had been wearing on the plane were torn and filthy much like her shirt, her eyes were red and she had a few cuts here and there.

"What did they do to you?" the young girl asked keeping her tears.

"Nothing I can't handle." She replied in a weak voice letting a few tears drop.

"Are you ok? You limp, what's going on?" Pepper asked her worried. Millie smiled fairly. Pepper was ever the same; she had been hit and tortured a lot more than her but there she was, worrying about her well being.

"It's nothing, just a hungry rat." She said and Pepper gasped.

Millie let her head fell on the right and looked at her.

"Really Pepper? You look like you were thrown in the middle of a battlefield and you worry about my leg? It's getting better anyway." She said making Pepper smile fairly.

"You wouldn't say that if you could see yourself. Besides a mother never stops worrying." She said and her face fell.

"Where are the kids?" Millie asked her.

"I haven't seen them in days. I don't know where they are!" Pepper said and burst into tears. Millie hugged her and let them fall onto the floor crying.

"Don't worry, they'll be ok, Pepper, we'll get out of here, I promise." Millie said sobbing. Pepper nodded and gathered herself.

"How? I tried to contact Tony but nothing gets out of these walls." She said.

Millie's eyes popped out of her head.

"How can you contact him?" she asked her. She knew Tony had chipped them all so he would be able to locate them but a contact device?

Pepper touched her ring avoiding to verbalize her answer in fear of microphones.

Millie arched two eyebrows in surprise. Of course it was the ring! She remembered Tony saying something about it.

_This ring is the thread that connects you to my heart._

He had said it on their wedding.

"Pepper, we can give him a sign of life with that!" Millie whispered. It was their only hope. If Tony knew they were alive he would look for them and maybe she didn't say it out aloud but she had faith in him. He would find them.

"I tried but there's something blocking the signal." Pepper sighed. She knew exactly what Millie thought. Had the situation been different Tony would be on the run but now… he was probably drinking himself to death or worse. Pepper was very well aware of the destructive side of her husband.

"There must have some kind of led covers. I'm sure Markus had thought of it." she said and got up helping Pepper to her chair.

"Who is this guy? What does he want from us, from the kids?" she asked. She had no more tears to shed; she had spent too many days crying herself to sleep just like all those years ago. Only this time she was the captive and Tony was far, far away.

"I don't know who he is but I know he wants to destroy Tony. I really don't want to imagine what he wants with the kids." Millie said supporting her weight on the bench.

"There are only a million reasons why he wants the codes and the weapon." Pepper said.

"The weapon is just a gadget. He is building something else, something big." Millie said. Pepper seemed to think for a moment before she grabbed the picture of the STK007 that lay on the bench.

"Tony once told me that he had made this in a moment of anger, shortly after his parents had died. It was meant to be a weapon of massive destruction killing every communication, every device connected to a network, it was how Stane had discovered his talent at making weapons." Pepper said reliving the moment.

_She had walked into his workshop on a Monday morning only to be met with chaos. Tony's workshop was never organized but things had gotten a bit out of control that day. There were cables and scraps of metal everywhere, blueprints stack wherever it was possible and various things that look capable of causing a really bad head injury were flying off from the back. _

"_Jarvis, what is going on?" she asked the computer._

"_Mr. Stark is looking for something." The computer answered._

"_Could you please tell him I'm within shooting range and he should stop throwing things like that or else I'll have to take a really long leave due to medical care?" She said in her professional tone as she walked carefully to where her boss was._

"_Pepper?" Tony yelled shortly after stopping what he was doing._

"_I'm here Mr. Stark; please stop shooting old parts at me." She said and stepped into his storage. He had made a mess, as usual and she would have to spend a lot of time putting everything back to place._

"_You're safe." He said smirking._

"_You look like hell." She said not smiling at all. "When was the last time you slept?" she asked him but he shook his head._

"_I'm looking for something." He said and looked at the selves again._

"_You need to eat, shower, shave and sleep. You look like a cave man." She said typing at her blackberry._

"_Does it turn you on?" he said winking at her. _

"_I was on the mood when I came down here but after seeing you like that…" she said letting her voice trail off never abandoning her professional tone._

"_I could get a shower and shave; it'll take like ten minutes." Tony said._

"_Sorry, Mr. Stark, you had your chance and you lost it, now what are you doing?" She asked him hiding her phone and looking around._

"_You are killing me, Potts." He said taking a look around as well._

"_I look for an engine I made last year. It was supposed to run with an arc reactor but I think I got it now." He said throwing away a few things._

"_Ok, uhm, it can't be this, or that, how about that? Over there?" she said pointing at something on the top self._

_Tony looked up and his face fell instantly. "No, it's not that. Actually I should take that thing apart before someone breaks into and takes it." Tony said._

"_Why, what is it?" Pepper asked being curious. Tony, never, ever destroyed his inventions. _

_The billionaire took a deep breath and looked up at the thing._

"_It's something I made a few years ago." He said and reached for it. "It can kill every satellite that's in orbit." He said. Pepper gasped._

"_That would kill every communication!" Pepper said._

"_Yeah, not only that, it can actually kill every machine that connects to the network, uhm, that would be every machine on the planet nowadays." Tony said not very proud about it._

"_Tony, we're talking about a very dangerous thing!" she said and then looked back at him arching an eyebrow. "It's not one of your sick jokes again, is it?" she said and he shook his head._

"_No, it's true, Pepper, if this thing falls into the wrong hands it can do a lot of damage and the worst part would be that I have nothing to protect us from it." He said looking pretty disappointed on himself. _

"_Tony, why would you make such a thing?" she asked him surprised. _

"_It was a difficult time back then. I was still in college and my parents had died and I was just so angry with the world." He confessed. "I just wanted to disappear anything that had to do with us, the company that is. That's how Obadiah discovered my talent at making weapons; if it wasn't for him I would have destroyed the thing long ago." Tony said and put it back in the self. _

"_Uhm, ok, what did you want?" He asked her and she shook her head trying to remember the reason she had got to the workshop in the first place. _

"Oh, God, do you think he's planning an attack?" Millie wondered.

Pepper shook her head. It was more than that.

"He wants the access codes of the company. One would want them to break in and steal but why do that while you got someone making what you ask?" Pepper thought out aloud. "Besides Tony said they were making something really big." She added.

Both women sat in silence thinking.

"What if he doesn't want to steal but just break in?" Millie said giving time for Pepper to process it. The red head realized what the younger woman meant and her eyes popped out.

"Do you think he will use the device to accuse Tony of an attack?" Pepper said connecting all the dots.

He had kidnapped them setting up their death letting everyone believe they had died. Now she understood why; he got a brilliant mechanic that could recreate the STK007, the woman who knew the access codes, he had the kids as motivation and nobody would be surprised if Tony Stark attacked the world due to his grief.

"He said Tony would lose everything, right? That would include the company, his reputation, the suit, everything Tony has." Millie said and paused for a minute.

"You've not met him, Pep; his eyes are full of hatred. He looks like those businessmen we met from the Ace and Ace Corp." Millie said.

Pepper remembered those guys, they were sneaky and disgusting. They would do everything to achieve the best agreement to their company even if that meant accusing someone of murder falsely.

"If he does what we think he will, Tony would go to jail and the company would fail." Pepper said and realized something. "Our stocks would get so low anyone could buy us." She said getting a piece from his plan. He would buy Tony's heritage leaving Tony in his mercy. He would probably tell him they were alive when he got in jail or worse execution.

Pepper gasped; if Markus succeeded in accusing Tony of a terrorist's attack that would make Tony a traitor and he would face a death sentence!

"Pepper, what's going on?" Millie asked seeing her step mother had burst into tears.

"Peps, talk to me." She begged kneeling before her trying to calm her down. Pepper tried to alter a few words but they got drowned in her sobs.

"Pepper, I don't get it, try to calm down." She said. The red head took a few deep breaths and tried again.

"If Tony is accused of such an attack that would make him a traitor…"

"…and his sentence would be death." Millie realized freezing on her spot.

Suddenly the door opened and the room was filled with baby cries and screams. A few angry words were barked in Swahili and the door was locked again leaving the two children to run towards their mother, Marie trying to hold little Logan in her arms. Pepper hugged them and kissed them hungrily letting a few tears of joy down her face.

Millie looked at the scene but her mind was light years away. She imagined Tony going to the gallows followed by all his friends that were spitting on him and asked for his death. All those people he had once saved would want him dead. She couldn't let that happen, she wouldn't she would save them all, including Tony.

* * *

_you don't think I took it too far, do you? :)_


	16. Across the bridge

Across the bridge

"Oh my God, Eddie, Marie, Logan! Oh my God, you're alive, you're ok! Let me see you, are you hurt?" Pepper asked them again and again hiding them in her arms. It had been almost a week, it should be a week, judging by the meals that come and go, she hadn't seen them in a week. She tried to inspect them using the faint light from the lambs they had got Millie to work. They looked tired and dirty, their expensive clothes had been replaced with rags but they looked ok.

"Where were you? Where did they take you? Did they harm you?" she bombarded them with questions. Logan had nuzzled in her arms along with Marie while Edward tried to be brave and stood by her side holding her arm.

"No." he answered.

"Did they hit you or anything?" Millie asked him but he shook his head.

"Where are your clothes?" Pepper asked them.

"They gave us these so we wouldn't get dirty." Marie mumbled in her mother's chest.

"Did they force you out of them?" Millie asked Edward letting herself fall to his eye level.

"No." the boy answered. "They took us far away." He added.

"Where?" Pepper asked caressing Logan's head.

"I don't know, we got across the bridge and then they split us. I'm sorry mum." Eddie said on the verge of crying. Pepper got off the chair and sat on the ground with her son gathering him in her arms.

"There's nothing to be sorry, Edward, you are not responsible for this, for any of these." Pepper said hiding him in her arms. He was so little and so scared she could feel his little heart tremble. When someone met Edward they thought of him as a junior version of Tony with all his destructive side winning ground but he had inherited something nobody knew Tony had and even him had discovered it long after he had become Iron man.

Responsibility

Tony felt responsible for every bad thing that happened on the planet and he wouldn't be able to prevent or change.

Edward felt responsible for his family and his friends. He felt like he had to protect them just like his parents and Millie did with him. He was the big brother after all.

"They took me somewhere with a lot of kids but I could not play with them. They told me they were beneath me, that I was their leader and I should make sure they did their jobs." He said now crying loudly.

"Edward, what happened there honey?" Millie asked him caressing his back. Eddie revealed his face from Pepper's chest and looked at his sister with watery eyes.

"They made me hit them." He said and hid again. Pepper hugged him tight not believing her ears.

What kind of monsters were they? Make children hit other children? Were they sick or something?

"What about you, Marie? Where did they take you?" Millie asked her baby sister just to know how nasty her revenge should be.

"We got across a bridge and then they took us to a village."

"Were you with Logan?" Pepper asked her. The girl nodded and kept on.

"They gave us to a lady with a bench. She had a lot of clothes she sold and I was supposed to help her so she could watch over Logan. I wasn't supposed to talk to her either." She said abandoning her mother's arms for her sister's allowing Eddie to get comfortable. He looked very sad.

"Don't worry; we are going to get out of here." Pepper said.

"Daddy will save us, won't he?" Marie said and both women nodded in agreement.

They sat there for several moments try to get their place in the universe again.

What did they want with them? What was Markus's sick plan for them?

Pepper was now sure that what they had discovered was merely a piece of a bigger plan that included Edward, Marie and Logan too.

So, what had Tony done to that man to deserve such a thing?

"Mama." Logan said hugging her tight. Pepper rubbed his back to soothe him.

"Mum, why don't you tell us a story?" Millie said surprising her. She never called her that way. Sure, Tony had tried a lot of times to convince Mildred to call them mum and dad but he had failed. Pepper herself found it a bit obscured. She was quite young to be Millie's mother and pretending to be just seemed funny. However, Mildred used the title whenever she wanted to touch Pepper's sensitive side and that would be whenever she was in trouble, really big trouble. But somehow, using it at a moment like that sounded only right. They had to be united.

"Yes, mommy, tell us a story." Marie agreed.

Pepper nodded.

"Ok, what do you want?" she asked them.

"How about the time you met daddy?" Marie said but Edward disagreed.

"No, I like the one with the mustache." He said.

Finally they decided to do both.

_Virginia Potts had just graduated Harvard with Highest Honors and she was thrilled she had gotten accepted by Stark Industries. She worked on the fifth floor in a room full of secretaries checking the contracts and every account that got in or out from the Industries including those that traveled from one office to the other. Of course, for young Virginia Potts, that was just the beginning. She didn't know if she would stay there the following years but she had dreamt of a career that one day would get her the position of a higher executive, maybe even the chair of the C.E.O. But Virginia knew only one way to the top and that was hard work. So when the file with the new agreement for R&D arrived she was more than eager to check it._

"_Sent this off" Diane, a colleague told her. _

"_It'll take a few minutes to check it." Virginia said. The older woman laughed making her frown._

"_What is it?" she asked her._

"_Ok, you are new here and you don't know but see this?" she told her and pointed at the signature on the last paper. "That's Tony Stark's, it's hand written which means he has actually read it and done the math all by himself." She said. Virginia looked at her still not understanding._

"_Ok, but why shouldn't I check it? It'll take like twenty minutes." The young Potts said._

"_Exactly, honey, you can do a million other things in twenty minutes that would take you home to your boyfriend in a decent time for once. Why spoil them? That man never makes a mathematical error anyway; he's a genius!" Diane said and sat on her desk. _

_Virginia had never met Tony Stark in person. She had seen him on magazines, had heard rumors and she knew exactly what this woman was telling her. Of course he would never make a mathematical error but why should that prevent her from doing what she was paid to do?_

"_Uhm, I know that, but I still want to check it out, I'll stay extra twenty minutes." Virginia said and started reading. After a long hour and right when she was certain she had charged herself with an extra hour of work for nothing, she saw it. It was right there and was so tiny no one would notice. The all mighty Stark had forgotten a factor! Had he even read the thing after he had finished? She wondered but she already knew the answer. He would be so sure for himself he would hand half the company to the Japanese if it wasn't for her!_

_She took a minute to pride herself. She had saved the company!_

_She grabbed the phone and called the president's office. She couldn't believe she was actually doing that but she felt so powerful at the moment._

"_Jane Osborn, C.E.O's office." A young girl in bored voice said._

"_I'm Virginia Potts from the accountants' office, I would like to see Mr. Stark." She said._

"_Mr. Stark is not currently at the office." The girl answered._

"_When will he come? It's an emergency!" Virginia said and she was right. The agreement she had on her desk was supposed to be faxed to Japan as soon as possible or they would face a big failure._

"_Mr. Stark, doesn't come to the office, if you want to talk to him you'll have to leave me your name and I can ask him for an appointment, but don't get your hopes up." She said. Virginia thanked her and hanged up._

_If she couldn't talk to Stark she would talk to the vice-president. She got up grabbing the agreement and the notes._

"_Where are you going?" Diane asked her but she didn't answer. She knew that if she called Stane's office she would get a similar reply. She got to the elevator getting to the last floor. She was really nervous, Obadiah Stane was not known for his kindness. She found his secretary typing furiously on her computer. She looked very nervous too._

"_Uhm, sorry, may I see Mr. Stane? It's an emergency." Virginia said as polite as she could._

"_Well, everyone is in an emergency these days." The girl answered not looking at her._

"_I'm from the accountants' office, it's about an agreement Mr. Stark signed…"_

"_Go to Mr. Stark." She said stopping for a moment to look at her notes._

"_He's not here." Virginia said losing her temper. This thing was important why nobody listened?_

"_Typical, anyway, Mr. Stane has a meeting with Human Resources that's about to end. If you catch him before he leaves for New York, he's all yours." The girl said and Pepper ran to the elevator again. Human Resources were on the tenth floor._

_Oh, what she was going through for the company! She just hoped to get a big prize for all these, or just a really big ice cream. Truth be told, she knew that there was a higher possibility of getting fired than rewarded. At least she would have her conscious clear. _

_The moment the elevator reached the tenth floor, Obadiah Stane got in with a bunch of bodyguards and assistants. Virginia grinned on her good luck and moved closer to him._

"_Mr. Stane I was looking for you, I'm Virginia Potts from the accountants' office." She said in her professional tone. The bald man gave her a look and then turned away counting the floors._

"_You have one minute." He told her._

"_I got this agreement on my desk today; it's about our deal with Japan for the R&D department. There's an error that needs to be corrected." She said but the man cut her off._

"_Fix it."_

"_I can't, the calculations have to be made all over, Mr. Stark has to do it." she said and he laughed at her, hard._

"_Tony? You claim Tony has made a mistake? The kid can't make a mistake even if he wants to." He said causing everybody in the elevator to laugh too._

"_But I double checked it, he needs to fix this!" she said._

"_You better find a better excuse to meet Tony Stark girl and not in here or else we'll have to fire you." He said exiting the elevator._

_Virginia stayed steel not believing her ears. Nobody wanted to listen! Nobody believed her! It was frustrating, why couldn't they believe that their precious boy had made a mistake? He could be drunk or not paying attention when he did it. _

_Yeah, she had been in the company long enough to have heard about her boss. _

"_Hold it!" a man yelled running to the elevator. Virginia held the door letting the young man in._

_He was around twenty six and very handsome. He wore a black pair of jeans, a grey t-shirt and a red jacket with matching sneakers. He was holding a pizza box and his eyes were hidden behind a pair of glasses. He looked very well paid for a delivery boy._

"_Do you like pizza?" he asked her._

_Virginia smiled kindly. She thought she could just let loose for the next five floors._

"_Yes" she answered._

"_Me too, actually it's the only thing I eat." He said making her frown. She would feel sorry for him if she hadn't seen his watch. Was he a thief or something?_

"_What's your name?" he asked her. He had such a deep charming voice she just couldn't stand not hearing it again._

"_Virginia" she said and he smirked raising an eyebrow over his sunglasses._

"_You look more like a Pepper to me." He said opening the box to take a sniff. _

"_I like peppers on my pizza." He said making her eyes go wide._

"_Excuse me?" she said an octave higher than normal._

"_You look gorgeous in that suit but I bet you look even better without it. I like the heels though, they're smoking." He said and got a slap before he could register it making his glasses fell on the huge box of pizza._

"_Asshole." Virginia said and exited the elevator glancing back in anger._

_The look on the guy's face was infuriating, like he hadn't seen it coming. Who did he think he was? She supported her back on the wall to take a few breaths._

_She had to find Mr. Stark and she had to make him listen to her._

_She had to find him._

_Then it struck her; that look, those eyes! _

_Oh God, she had just slapped Tony Stark! He was going to his office at that moment!_

_Oh, well, she considered herself fired already but she would rub his mistake to his face before leaving with her head up and her heels echoing down the halls. Oh, she would make an exit._

_She took the second elevator and hit the button furiously even though it wouldn't go any faster. She arrived on the last floor and went straight to the president's office._

"_May I help you?" the secretary asked._

"_I'm Virginia Potts from the accountants' office and I want to see Mr. Stark." She said flushing from all her rush and nerves._

"_I told you, Ms. Potts, Mr. Stark is not here!" the girl said._

"_I just saw him in the elevator!" Virginia yelled hoping Stark would get out finding out what was going on._

"_You should get your eyes checked." She said arrogant._

"_Look here, missy, I have a really important agreement that needs to be send to Japan by five o'clock today or else we crash every market on the planet. The problem is that Mr. Anthony Stark has made a mistake in his calculations that would give them half our budget if he doesn't fix it. So, I don't care if I get fired I will see him now because I know he is in there eating pizza from a huge box from Mario's doing absolutely nothing!" she yelled leaning over her making her look so tiny._

"_He's not here." The secretary said in an equal tone._

"_Let's see." Virginia said walking towards the door followed by Jane who couldn't stop her._

"_Hi, Mr. Stark, I'm Virginia Potts from the accountants' office and I need to talk to you, now." She said for the hundredth time that day._

"_Sorry Mr. Stark I couldn't stop her." Jane apologized trying to catch her breath._

"_Pepper?" Tony said looking surprised surprising his secretary too._

"_Do you know her?" she said asked and Tony told her to leave them alone._

_Virginia straightened her clothes and took a deep breath before taking a few steps to stand right in front of him._

_The pizza box stood on his office along with a few sketches and what looked like important documents. He had removed his glasses and she could now see his big brown eyes that analyzed her._

"_Name your price." Tony said really serious._

_Virginia frowned not understanding._

"_You're here to threaten me with a sexual harassment assault." He said sounding dangerously familiar with the process._

"_I'm here on business, Mr. Stark and it doesn't include my heels or your improper comment about them earlier." She said in a perfect professional tone she was proud she had in moments like this._

"_Oh, uhm, what is it then?" he asked her feeling a bit out of his territory._

_Pepper gave him the file but he didn't take it so she just left it on his desk._

"_This made it to my desk an hour ago; it's our agreement with Japan about our new R&D plan. It seems that there's been a mistake and I cannot send it unless you want to give them half our budget." She said glad she got to tell him at last._

_Tony frowned opening the file._

"_That's impossible, I did the calculations myself last night and I don't make mistakes." He said scanning the document._

"_So I've heard but if you skip to page six you'll see that the sales factor is missing." She said trying to hide her smirk and keep her cold professional face on. She succeeded even when she did a fictional winning dance in her mind when Stark's eyebrows nearly left his forehead realizing his mistake._

"_Uhm, it seems you are right, Ms. Potts, I… did… forget it." he said not believing his eyes._

"_I guess tequila is not a good escort for math." He said smirking and grabbed the pencil he had on his ear and noted on the formal papers. It was Virginia's eyebrows now that nearly left her forehead._

_He was doing the calculations there and then on the formal papers!_

_When he finished he opened his drawer getting a paper with signature gaps on it. He singed it, both on his and Stane's behalf and gave it to Virginia along with the file._

"_Type it, staple it and off they go. You'll make it until five o'clock." He said._

_Potts nodded as she took the file._

"_Thank you Mr. Stark." She said._

"_Pepper?" he asked, "what about that assault?" he said._

"_I'm not going to sue you, Mr. Stark, I just want to do my job and my name is not Pepper." She said._

"_Are you sure? I think it suits you, you know the hair and the spicy behaviour." He said but Virginia stopped him._

"_Don't push it." she said and left._

_She had a huge winner's grin on her face as she did. _

_She had beat Tony Stark._

_The next day she went to work full of confidence with a feeling that everything would go better from that day on._

_She reached her office and froze on the doorstep. Her office was empty!_

_Well, it wasn't as if she had a lot of things but there was nothing there, not even the documents she was working on! There was just an empty desk._

_Had he fired her? The sneaky bastard! Why couldn't he do it yesterday?_

_She walked towards her desk not believing her eyes._

"_What happened? Why is my desk empty?" she wondered out aloud. _

"_It was empty when we got here this morning, but there's a file on it." Roberta said._

_Virginia looked at the desk again; she was right, there was a file. It was very small to be anything but a card. You don't fire people with gift cards._

_She picked it up and got the card out. It said: Come to my office._

_It was written in Tony Stark's handwriting. She had spent a lot of time the previous day trying to decode his notes to not recognize it. She let a sigh and turned to leave._

"_What happened?" Diane asked._

"_I guess I won't be seeing you anymore." She said and walked towards the elevator. She was right, she won't be seeing them again but she didn't know why._

_She reached the last floor and heard two people yelling. It was coming from the C.E.O's office, her destination. She didn't like that. _

"_Uhm, Mr. Stark left me a note to come here, what's going on?" Potts asked Jane, the secretary. The woman was on the phone and looked pretty busy in contradiction to the previous day. _

"_I'm busy right now, thanks to you, he's in there with Stane, you know the way." She said and left, walking towards a room where tools where buzzing dangerously. _

_Virginia stood before the door for a moment trying to estimate the situation. _

_Stark and Stane were having a fight._

"_Are you out of your mind? You can't promote the first girl you see in the hallway just because you fancy her legs!" Stane yelled._

"_Actually I met her in the elevator and I like her hair too." Stark said making fun of the vice president. They were fighting about her!_

"_You're impossible!" Stane said._

"_I can't be that, I could be improbable though, but I'm not. I've thought through it Obi." Stark said never abandoning his mocking tone._

"_Along with a bottle of bourbon?" the older man mocked him._

"_Look" Stark said sounding pretty serious "I searched her, she graduated Harvard with Highest Honors, she has a degree in Business and Financials and I read some of her projects that, I admit, could not quite understand. There's nothing I don't understand." Tony said._

"_So you're fascinated."_

"_Obi, I need a Personal Assistant, I can't do company work, we both know that, I need someone that can make my schedule and will take care of all these things while I …"_

"_live your life." Stane said and Potts could just imagine Mr. Stark frowning._

"_She's brilliant and I'm not promoting her, I'm hiring, she's my personal, personal assistant." He said._

"_If you see this only professional why did you turn the conference room into an office?" Stane asked him. _

_Oh, he was making her an office! He was making her his P.A!_

"_Obi, you know me, I can't see anything professional but that's why I have you and now I'll have Pepper."_

"_Pepper? What kind of name is that?" Stane said but Virginia had heard enough._

_She knocked on the door and walked in._

"_Good morning, Mr. Stark, did you ask for me?" she said in her professional smile. _

"_Ms. Potts!" Tony said greeting her. He looked a lot more professional than the previous day. He was wearing a grey suit with white sneakers. _

"_Congratulations on your new job! I'm now officially your boss, you know me, not the company. Your office is down the hall and Obi here will fill you in." He said walking away from her._

"_Where are you going?" Stane asked him._

"_I got an appointment." The young man grinned and left._

_Virginia was left alone with the vice-president feeling really awkward. She didn't really like the guy. _

"_So, Ms. Potts, you are now the P.A of Mr. Stark. The first thing you must never forget is that he's your boss." Stane said and Virginia understood that statement several months later._

_Pepper_

_That was officially her new name. She was pretty sure that after correcting Tony all the time he had learned her name but he just liked Pepper better. After a while she felt like a Pepper too, she even introduced herself as such! He had completely changed her life and she really did find it difficult to remember he was just her boss. Of course, Tony could never keep himself from flirting her and those were the moments she remembered Obadiah's words. _

_Tony Stark was a big kid. He had all kinds of toys and had enough brains to make new ones but he just liked the ones he couldn't control and that would be humans. It didn't take her long to discover that her boss had no friends and he would have no social life if it wasn't for his other side; the one she really despised._

_The only people he saw daily were her, Stane and Happy, his bodyguard/driver. That's why he made sure he teased them all the time. It took Pepper a while to realize he was never going to stop and she was starting to accept that idea when that week came and she got really scared._

_It had started out of nothing. It had been a hot day and Tony thought of making some strawberry milkshake. She had kindly refused the beverage focusing on the paperwork. Tony had thought she just took it the wrong way and for the week that followed he made sure to prepare their meals whenever Pepper was in the mansion. She didn't seem to mind coffee or pizza but she had a peculiar thing with strawberries, so Tony put strawberries in every meal._

"_What's wrong with you and strawberries anyway? They are quite delicious, especially those with a deep red colour…"_

"_I'm allergic." Pepper said noting something but Tony was already a few miles down his fantasy. _

"… _along with warm, melt chocolate. Most people like wipe cream but I prefer chocolate especially on a warm, soft skin…"_

"_Mr. Stark!" Pepper brought him back before he could go any further in his fantasy._

"_Right, you hate strawberries, it's ok, I hate pickles." He said and got back to his workbench._

_It was a week later they sat in his kitchen celebrating the upgrade of Dummy. It was lame but since the robot had achieved to clean the house without flooding it, it deserved a small celebration. Tony had volunteered to make sandwiches while Pepper would make some coffee. _

_They were half way to their breakfast when Pepper felt discomfort. Her throat was closing and she had difficult time breathing._

_Then she realized._

"_Did you put strawberry marmalade on the sandwiches?" she asked him trying to breath._

"_Yeah, why? Oh, you hate strawberries!" He said frowning at his assistant. She looked awful._

"_I'm allergic!" She yelled making him fall of his chair._

"_What?! Why didn't you tell me?" he said but Pepper could not speak anymore._

"_Ok, don't worry, I'll take you to the hospital, you got anything with you that helps?" he asked a bit panicked. She pointed at her back and the young man ran emptying all her thing finding a small injection. He injected her and then ran to the garage taking his red Ferrari. _

_Pepper could not understand if she was fainting from her allergy shock or the way her boss was driving. He was effective, though, as they reached the hospital in less than fifteen minutes. _

_When she woke up she found Tony by her side looking terribly worried._

"_Oh, God, Pepper, you're alright! I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I didn't do it on purpose!" he apologized. _

_Tony Stark apologizing, well it was the least he could do._

"_I told you I was allergic." She said feeling her tongue and lips swollen up._

"_I don't remember, I'm sorry, but the doctors said you're al right now." He said smiling shyly._

"_I'm swollen up and I'm pretty sure I look like a duck right now." She said and she had to be right because Tony tried really hard not to laugh._

"_You're the prettiest duck I've ever seen." He joked earning a smack with her pillow._

"_Damn you, Stark! I have like a million meetings today, how am I supposed to go in this condition?" she yelled._

"_Oh, don't worry about that, I cleared your schedule, you need to rest." Tony said. _

"_You did what?" she yelled again._

"_I know you're angry but it's for your own good, I took your phone too." He said and she groaned from anger._

"_I swear I would kill you if you were not my boss." She hissed._

"_It would normally hurt me to hear that but I'm glad you think like that at the moment." He said not helping._

"_Ok, I know you're not thankful right now but you will thank me one day, but if it makes you feel better, you can choose your revenge." He said._

"_I don't want revenge." She said crossing her arms._

"_Really? Not even a little? Embarrass me just a little?" he said resuming his seat._

"_You do a pretty good job on your own; I don't need extra damage control, thank you." She said looking away._

"_I guess you're right, but now I feel even worse. I want you to do something to me. It can be something small and humiliating in a small range that would not need damage control." He said but she refused to play._

"_You need to shave. I told you before." She said trying to change the subject._

"_That's it!" he said and he jumped off his chair bursting out of the room. After a moment he came back with a razor._

"_What's this?" Pepper asked._

"_You're going to shave me and you can do whatever you want with me. Just don't cut me ok? There's a high possibility I get an infection in here." He said handing her the razor and a bottle of foam. _

_Pepper smiled at the thought. She liked that, maybe she could do something artistic, something really eccentric, like Tony._

_She would never humiliate him, he was her boss, but if it made him happy…_

"_There, ready, I hope you like it." she said and let him go to the bathroom to inspect it._

"_Hm, it's a really eccentric goatee, not very humiliating though." He said._

"_I would never humiliate you, Mr. Stark." She said and he smiled._

"_I actually, like it, Potts, maybe I will keep it." he said._

"And he did keep it 'til today." Pepper said but all three of the kids had fallen asleep.

She sighed. What would they do?

"We can't let them take them again. I won't stand it." she whispered knowing Millie would be awake.

"I know but we have to let them take the kids out, the sooner the better, actually. It's our only hope." The girl said eyeing Pepper's ring.

The red head nodded in agreement. They were their only hope.


	17. Back to life

Back to life

_He pushed and pushed but the damn thing could not go any faster. Jarvis was a constant reminder of the power he had left but he couldn't care less. He had heard them cry and scream; he had to go there. Suddenly there was a strong light violating the darkness of the night, a deafening noise broke the silence and he saw it. The plane was cracked in half and falling. _

_He looked again and saw something else that was not there before. There was another plane just a few feet away. He saw men getting in; they were holding something or rather someone. The plane got lost in the night and he dove to save what was left from his life._

Tony opened his eyes slowly having a sly smile on his face. He hadn't seen, he hadn't heard, he hadn't thought. The plane had not been exploded to pieces. It was a set up as everything else. There had been an explosion on the back, that's why he tried to land the thing on his back in the first place. He instinctively knew they couldn't have died from the explosion. Yet he was fooled by his friend's words and his own feelings. He was always afraid he would lose them and when those words reached his ears he just stopped thinking.

That had been a mistake. There were no bodies; they had found no bodies, just like with Bruce Wayne. Millie had told him, they had discussed the possibility of Wayne being alive. He should have more faith. His family was alive.

He just had that feeling; there were not gone.

He got up and walked to the window. They were out there somewhere, probably held in a damp basement or a cave. He could save them and he wouldn't waste any more time.

"Got it" Natasha said entering the apartment. Tony looked at her and she could see there was something different on his look. There was a glimpse of hope.

She let the bag with the laptop on the table and took a second look.

"What happened?" She asked him. He wasn't smiling or anything; she just had that feeling that the atmosphere was lighter.

"The spirits talked to me, told me my family is still alive." He said taken her aback.

"Do you trust the spirits?" she played along. Was Stark losing his mind? How could they be alive? They had found nothing; absolutely nothing after the explosion!

"I trust mine." He said and got his cell-phone out. Natasha looked at him thinking the possibility of him being right. They had found nothing indicating the Starks were still alive BUT they hadn't found anything that proved they were dead either.

Could they be alive? Could someone have kidnapped them? Why would he set up their death?

"Hey, Rogers, this is Tony Stark." Tony said.

"_Mr. Stark? Where have you been? I'm looking for you for over three weeks now…"_

"Riley, I want you to stop blathering and listen to me very carefully." Tony said interrupting the young assistant.

"I'm calling it code black." He said surprising Natasha yet again. One of the first things she learnt when she got hired by Stark industries was the system of codes. Tony had found it quite funny when he had first established it but it proved to be helpful especially on cases like earthquakes, Reactor's malfunction, etc.

Code Black meant lock down; all engines stopped, people got out and the SI was turned into a ghost building. It was never used 'till that day.

"_What? Why?"_ Riley asked from the other end of the line.

"Just do as I say, Riley and make sure it's over in less than thirty minutes." Tony said.

"_But Sir what about production, what about the stoke market?" _

"Do as I say, Rogers, besides it won't be forever. When it's locked down you drive directly to the mansion and get down to the workshop, turn the computers on, Jarvis will help you. I count on you." Tony said and hanged off.

"What's going on?" Natasha asked him.

Tony limped over to the table and opened Hoover's laptop next to his own.

"Security measures" He said not wanting to reveal anything just yet. When that guy had told him he would lose everything, Tony had underestimated the statement. He was sure now the plan was of a greater extend and everything meant literary everything, even his own life.

He hacked to the system finding Hoover's encrypted conversation. He found a source back in the states but he was sure he couldn't rely on that.

He tried the bank records finding the deposit had been done in Paris. The name was Francois Zardime and he worked at the bank.

Natasha and Tony put on their professional clothes and drove down town to the bank. They walked in letting everyone know that Anthony Stark, billionaire super hero was in the house and that got them extra attention.

"Mr. Stark, we are so glad to have you here." The director said obviously aiming at the briefcase Natasha was holding thinking it had money.

"I don't know yet, what do you think, Natalie?" he asked her.

"I think Mr. Stark wants to know more about your bank." She said and the director nodded furiously.

"Of course, anything, anything you want." The old man said.

"We would like to meet Francois Zardime." Natasha said and even though the director seemed surprised and disappointed he didn't argue. He led them to his office and called for Zardime.

The two of them waited there for a couple of minutes before the door was knocked and man on his early thirties appeared. He had a shaved head, blue eyes and wore a suit matching his position; secretary to the loans director.

He looked very calm at their sight and Natasha would have bought it if he didn't look very, very, extra ordinary calm.

"You asked me?" the man said.

"Sit down." Natasha said and got up. Tony didn't speak he just watched.

"Do you know James Hoover?" she asked him.

"Never heard of him, why?" he asked looking too innocent.

"Nothing in particular, you just deposited ten grand to his bank account a few weeks ago." She said playing with him but the young man was good.

"I work in a bank." He said

"No reason to give someone so much money just because you work in a bank." She said and he didn't answer.

"We know why you did it just tell us who put you and I promise you will be able to stand tomorrow." She said but he just smirked.

"I don't know what you're saying; I don't have that kind of money." He said.

"But the bank does." Tony said. "Pretty smart really, the black out and all. Take from a vastly rich guy and give it to a poor man, it would be smart and noble, only it isn't do you know why?" Tony said and tightened his grip around his cane just to keep himself from smacking the man's face. He would let Natasha do it later.

"Because you let a trail for me to find and because you helped kidnap my family." He said and Natasha pinned Zardime down on his chair in a very uncomfortable position.

"Where are they?" she asked him. He didn't answer and slapped him hard making his lip bleed.

"Where are they?" she emphasized every word. "I don't know what you are talking about." He said and Natasha got him up against the floor twisting his hand in an impossible angle.

"If you don't answer I will do this to your balls too." She said hitting his head against the wall. Zardime tried to keep his screams for himself but failed.

"Where are they!" she yelled reaching for a lower spot with her other hand.

"I don't know! I know nothing; I just got him the money!" He cried at the abuse of his most sensitive spot.

"Who put you? Who is behind all these?" Tony asked approaching them.

"I.. I…"

"He has a blade in that cane and enough money to buy the silence of everyone in this building." Natasha hissed in his ear.

"Markus! Markus Summers!" he yelled and Romanoff let him fall on the floor.

"Why?" Tony demanded.

"I don't know." Zardime answered.

"Why did you do it?" he asked him again.

"I owe him, he saved my life once." The man said trying to compose himself.

Natasha and Tony left the bank at once and drove to Tony's apartment. The genius billionaire opened his computer at once and searched for the name. It sounded familiar.

There it was, military record.

Markus Summers, son of Missy Summers, marine, retired due to mental problems.

"Missy Summers" Tony said catching Natasha's attention.

"What about her?" she asked him.

"I know her, I don't remember why." He said and turned Jarvis on.

"Jarvis, what does the name Missy Summers tells us?" he asked him. He had a feeling it was really important he just couldn't remember it.

"She's Mildred's biological mother." Jarvis said giving him a picture.

Oh, right! He had spent all these years convincing himself Mildred looked exactly like Pepper that he had forgot the woman she had actually given birth to her.

Missy Summers

Could she be the same one?

"Jarvis what are the possibilities of her being the same person as Markus Summers's mother?" Tony asked and the computer fell in silence for a while processing the data.

"99% Sir, it appears to be the very same person. Mr. Summers seems to be Mildred's brother." Jarvis said and left both Avengers stunned.

He was Millie's brother and he had kidnapped his family, he had threatened him he would take everything from him.

"What happened to Markus after Missy's death?" he asked the computer.

"Mr. Summers was adopted by a family but he ran away at the age of ten, never appearing again until he got to the army."

"What about the father?" Tony asked.

"Unknown." Jarvis answered and everyone fell in silence.

"Ok, Jarvis, change the access codes and help, Riley as I told you." He said lying back troubled.

That had been a strange turn of events.

"So your daughter has a brother that's not your son and he wants to destroy you for no apparent reason." Natasha said. "Nice" she said reading Markus's file.

"There's always a reason, the fact that his mother died giving birth to my child doesn't really help." Tony said.

"I know, it's usually the same story; parent's death, difficult childhood, sometimes abuse and you just hate the world." She said.

"Is that what happened to you?" Tony asked her getting up to put some juice along a little alcohol. Just a little.

"That's not your business. Markus was kicked out for having control issues six years ago. He left Afghanistan to attend some anger control lessons just a day before your demonstration." She said giving a lot of thought to what had occurred.

"I should be thankful I guess, he would have killed right then and there." Tony said looking out the window.

He could understand him just a little. He knew what it meant to lose your family, to be alone, to survive and have no one to count on. He knew what it meant to be angry with the world but he would never hurt anyone.

Ok, maybe he had made a weapon of massive destruction back then but he never used it! It didn't work anyway; it needed a lot more work than Tony could do before he had come to his senses.

Suddenly a thought struck him.

E.M.P

He had used E.M.P against him and it just happened to be the basic idea to that weapon he had built as a kid.

Could it be that Markus had found a way to finish STK007?

He could threat and destroy every company and army in the world with that and he could just blame him.

"Nat, do you think this guy could be a terrorist?" He asked her.

Natasha looked at him not pleased. She didn't like being called Nat.

"It looks like he could do anything if it meant it could hurt you. He looks like the guy that would stab you on the back and he's really pissed off with you. I mean not only you were an ass, you took advantage of his mother and then damped her pregnant; you made people think of you as a hero forgetting all about your playboy, I-don't-give-a-damn, billionaire persona. If I were him I would want you to suffer." She said not realizing how far she had taken it.

Tony's eyes had grown ten times the size of Paris as Natasha was revealing the naked truth.

That was the truth; that was what Tony had done and how this kid thought of him. He had been … he couldn't even describe it. Pepper had said it right once; he had been a hurricane. He destroyed everything in his path, leaving nothing behind but racks and broken hearts.

But that was not him anymore; he was more like a river created by various storms. He could be calm and soothing and wonderful, he could be big and dazzling and dangerous if one was not prepared but there were still waterfalls on the way.

"I believe this whole story is a big set up." Tony said taking a sip from his drink.

"I agree with you." Natasha said. Tony left the glass near the window and went back to the computer.

"He wants to set me up and humiliate me, to prove that I haven't changed." He said watching the safety footage from the mansion in Malibu. Rogers was there as asked and his storage had been untouched.

"Do you have any idea how he could do that? Except from planting a blond bimbo in your bed." Natasha said but he passed her last comment.

"STK 007" he said and she arched an eyebrow. Did he really think other people could understand?

"It's something I made long ago, it was a moment of weakness but it can do a lot of damage. He could use it to threat any company or country that owns a satellite and then blame it on me." He said trying to think how he could have known about it.

"How could he know about it? Do you exhibit your deathly inventions in a public place?" she asked now really worried. They should call the agency about that.

"I believe I have the answer to that." Jarvis said through the speakers.

Both Tony and Natasha were stunned by the computer's response. Was he hacked?

"Jarvis, just tell me you have not been corrupted and you're not going to kill me." Tony said feeling a sting of treason in his heart. It would be as if his child had betrayed him.

"No, sir, I have not been corrupted all though an upgrade would keep such problems from your mind." The computer said making both avengers roll their eyes.

"I calculated the possible situations that you could have let valuable information slip your mouth and the places Mr. Summers could have met you and I found a video. It is from a series of speeches you gave to the engineers of the U.S.A army, dated 12/3/2003." Jarvis said and let the video played.

Tony did not remember that but he had the reason right in front of his eyes. He had been drunk. He did remember having a call from Rhodes back then about a seminar or something and he did remember having a lot of fun with his buddy and few marines in the base. The speech he did not remember.

"_Let's take you for example, what do you think about space war? Satellites, are you fond of them?" _

He saw himself asking a young man. He recognized him, he was Zardime. He watched as his younger self explained the necessity of the network and satellites and how by destroying them you had the upper hand.

"_Do you have a weapon like that?" _Zardime had asked him and off course Tony had showed off, boasting about it and showing them a picture of STK007 from the house cameras.

"Off" he said sighing. He didn't need to watch any more. He had pulled his eyes with his very own hands.

He collapsed on the chair running his hands in his hair.

"It's all my fault." He said feeling the anger building inside him.

"It is but you can make it up. Sitting here crying will not save them." Natasha said looking at him in her agent face. Now it was all business.

"I am a greater danger for them." He confessed.

Natasha had had enough. She hated self pity and all that whining. That was not Tony Stark and even though she didn't like him so much she hated seeing him at this state.

"People make mistakes Tony, some make big mistakes like starting a war or blowing up a building and other's make smaller mistakes, like letting someone go or turn down an offer. Some people drink and abuse their wives and children, some people treat other people like toys, like they don't matter. It is called past for a reason, because it's gone, finished, kaput. It can't change, it will always haunt you and you have to know how to live with it. Change is all that matters, you told me that!" she said looking deep into his eyes.

Tony was left speechless. It was hard to keep true to his beliefs when his past kept coming back and smack his face. He always got back up and he deserved to be tortured like that. But what about his family?

They didn't deserve a life as such. They deserved better and maybe Pepper would be off with Mr.- almost-right- guy after all.

"It's what we do that defines us." He murmured surprising the Russian agent.

"That's what I told Pepper when she came by the restaurant back in New York." he explained getting up from his chair.

_He had almost died back there. _

_No_

_He had died and came back, he was sure about it. The city was a mess, people had been injured, others had died but he was alive and they had saved the world. The first thing that came in his mind was food. He couldn't go back to the HQ, he couldn't report to Fury and he couldn't sit down and get examined by a doctor. _

_He had almost died and Pepper had not answered his call. He had to think. Maybe it had been for the best. What would he tell her? That he was dying? No, it was for the best._

_They had finished most of their food when it happened. They had found a small store that had not been completely destroyed and the owner had been more than pleased to cook for them. They were eating in silence, each of them lost in their own thoughts when he heard her voice. If the store had a door she would have ripped it apart._

"_Anthony Edward Stark!" she yelled making him freeze on his chair. Maybe she had seen the whole thing after all._

"_Who's that?" Everybody asked but Tony let Natasha explain._

"_A very angry Pepper Potts, or should I say, Stark." She said smiling as the click-click of Pepper's heels came closer coming to a halt right behind him._

"_Tony, get up." She said having crossed her arms in front of her chest._

"_Uhm, there are other people here, too, Peps." He said not really ready to confront her._

"_I'm sure they don't mind." She said and the rest of the team mumbled something that could have been 'no'. _

_Tony got up really slowly and followed her outside, giving a sly smile to Happy who looked very worried._

"_Are you out of your mind?" she asked him in her professional tone. He knew she was worried and the use of that tone meant only one thing. _

_Explosion_

"_Let me explain."_

"_I'm sitting in a plane watching the news when out of nowhere I see you carry a missile to nowhere!" she yelled._

"_There was no other way." He explained but she was not listening to him._

"_and then I see you fall and I think you are dead…" she said starting to sob._

"_Peps, I'm alright now." He said touching her shoulders trying to calm her down._

"_But I'm not! You go out there playing hero and I'm the one that's left behind! What if you had died? What would I do? We have a child if you don't remember and I don't want him to grow up thinking Jarvis is his father!" she was really breaking down._

"_It's better for him to grow up without a father than not grow up at all. I would never let those monsters take over the world and I'd rather die than make my son grow up in slavery." He said being really serious about it. Pepper had stopped yelling and was now merely sobbing. _

"_Sometimes I wish you were just Tony" she said sighing "and I pity myself for not having so noble ideas when it comes to your death." She said mocking him just a little. _

"_It's what we do that defines us, Pepper, not our ideas neither our dreams but our actions. I will never be as noble as you but I would do anything to make a better world for you, Eddie and Millie." He said hugging her._

_Pepper cried and buried her face in his chest feeling the arc reactor against her cheek. _

"_Can we go home now?" she asked. "I want to ask you about that phone call." She said and got him in the car feeling really awkward._

"Stark, are you still with us?" Natasha asked him flying her hand in front of his face.

"Uhm, yes, I'm good." He said bit she was still looking at him frowning.

"What?" he asked her.

"Is that thing in your chest supposed to be red?" she asked him and he frowned too.

He looked down and saw a red light coming from his chest.

It wasn't the arc reactor, it was something else.

He got his hand in his neck and got the locker off of him.

It was shining a strong light of red, then went off and on again.

"Is that Morse code?" Natasha recognized it.

Tony smiled a little before focusing on it. They were alive and were sending him a message.

"Africa"

* * *

_please review, we're heading towards the end_


	18. Save me

Save me

Edward sat on a rock under the burning sun. He was there again, in that awful place where dozens of kids were forced to break rocks and carry them in big carriages they could barely move.

He was given a stick that day and was to sit on that rock watching them. If anyone stopped he had to get up and beat him.

He was thankful it hadn't happened so far. These kids looked so weak and fragile all he wanted to do was invite them to his home and give them all his toys.

There was a girl that reminded him of Cecil a bit but she didn't talk to him. He couldn't talk to her either; if he did he got hit.

The first day they had brought him there they explained him what he had to do in very simple terms.

"You are the boss, if they stop you punish them, if they whine you punish them if they fight you restore order." That man had told him.

Edward did not like being the boss. His mum was the boss, his sister was the boss, every now and then his dad became the boss but never him. He didn't want to and in that field he found out he was right.

On that first day that girl who looked like Cecil fell down. He ran to her by instinct to help her but another boy, older than him, got in the way and got her up.

"Are you ok?" he had asked her but felt someone smacking his head before he could get an answer.

"You're the boss!" the man had said, "hit them" the man had said and when he didn't he hit him. Over and over until he did what he was asked. He wasn't hurt by the man, his hand had hardly found his rare and head but he got really hurt by the look in those children's eyes.

He looked around and estimated the situation.

_When nobody looks_

Millie had said

_Get it out of your shoe_

He reached down and felt it in his shoe; his mum's ring. He got it out and hid it in his palm.

He looked around once more and pressed the rock just like Millie had showed him.

Morse code Millie had called it.

Dad would see it and would rescue them. He would rescue all of them and the kids that worked under that burning sun.

When he finished he got up and reached for a small stone.

_When you're done, get rid of it._

"Hey, you, faster!" he yelled at that girl. It was all those men with the guns were saying.

The girl got up and looked at him in a weird way. He didn't know that look but he didn't like it.

"Faster, I said!" he said and threw the rock along with the ring. Fortunately he missed her but by her reaction she didn't miss the ring.

They were safe now, dad would find them.

"The codes! Give me the codes!" Markus yelled diving Pepper's head inside the bathtub once more.

The red head tried to resist; she kicked and turned but she couldn't release herself. She felt her lungs burn, her head pounding and just before she pasted out she could breathe again.

"Give me the damn codes or your kids die with a phone call." He hissed in her ear, his hideous breath caressing her cheek.

"I gave them to you." She said.

"They're wrong!" he yelled pulling her hair making her scream. He dragged her away from the tub and brought her in front of a computer.

"See? Now don't make fun of me because I can do things you can't even imagine." He said.

His face was distorted, his pupils dilated and his breath heavy.

Pepper could see the monster hidden inside him surfacing.

"Those are the right codes, I guess Tony changed them. He is much too smart for you." She said and screamed from pain as her hair was pulled again. He dragged her to the nearest wall and pinned her against it.

He buried his nose in her hair and smelled her neck going slowly for her bosom.

Pepper was on the verge of vomiting.

Calling this man an animal would be an underestimation of them.

His smell was insufferable, his sweat was dripping all over her from his dirty hair and his eyes… she dreaded his eyes.

"Smart Tony, great Tony, I get he's the best in everything he does. I bet he makes you scream on his bed." He said unbuttoning her shirt.

"I will make you scream harder and ask for mercy right here and right now." He added and smirked. "Maybe I should break into every property of Tony Stark." He said and got his hand dangerously low.

"You… disgust me." Pepper said and threw up right there on his clothes.

Markus jumped back cursing and ordered someone to take her away.

While she was dragged out she heard him pick up his phone. His words make her smile just a little.

"What do you mean you lost the girl and the baby?"

Pepper was dragged in the dark corridor certain to be going back to her cell. Her eyes were adapted in the darkness and she tried to memorize the paths as the kidnappers were taking her away.

She knew how to get to the infirmary and to that room of torture she had been earlier. As they reached the door of the cell Pepper stopped by the door.

The tall guard had other plans though. He passed Millie's cell and took her far away, in a corridor she hadn't walked before and shoved her in a dark hole.

It was really a hole barely big enough for someone to stand up or stretch out. It was completely dark to the point she couldn't even see her hands.

She signed and rested her head on the wall.

Marie and Logan had run away. That was what they had told them.

_If you get a chance to run away, you run and never look back._

Her breath was caught in her throat.

What would happen if they catch them?

What if they came across savages and wild animals?

What if Tony could not find them on time?

She buried her head between her knees and prayed for them.

They were only babies.

Millie walked nervously up and down.

The kids were gone and so was Pepper.

She had shown Edward what to do and she could only pray for everything to go according to plan.

However she had that knot in her stomach that told her something was not ok.

Pepper had not come back yet.

She shook her head to clear her mind from the dark thoughts that invaded it.

She was alright, she had to be, she couldn't abandon her now.

The door opened and Millie turned her head expectantly but let her face fell at the sight of Markus.

"Where's Pepper? Where are the kids?" she asked him and he smirked walking steadily towards the bench.

There was something weird about him, something she couldn't quite get.

"Your… siblings have run away but don't worry I have send my wolfhounds to find them. They have a lot experience in hunting." He said caressing the bench eyeing the mass of metal on it.

Millie smiled in her mind.

They had done it, they had sent the signal and had ran away. Tony would find them and save them.

"Your 'mother' is in her private suit for the job she did not do." He said and came to stop in front of whatever it was Millie was building all these days.

The girl smirked hiding her face in the dark. His voice trembled, he was afraid.

It was the beginning of the end.

"Having trouble with the access codes?" she mocked him and in an instant he was on her side.

"You are such a smartass, aren't you? Just like your father." He hissed and grabbed her wrist bringing it behind her back.

"You may look like her but you are pure Stark, aren't you? A little brat." He said forcing her on her knees.

"To whom do I look like? I don't get you." She said trying not to whimper. She would not give him the satisfaction.

"I let you be until now because of her but I was right all along, you're just like him." He hissed in her ear and threw her on the floor.

Millie rubbed her wrist and tried to understand his words.

What the fuck was he saying? Had he finally lost his mind?

"Mrs. Stark claims that the codes you have are outdated, your brilliant father changed them. Funny isn't it? He took away the only thing that could keep you alive." He said rubbing his hands together.

"He's too smart for you." She said and got kick in the guts.

"Shut up!" Markus yelled and picked her up by the collar.

"You'll finish the STK007 by midnight tonight and then you'll hack into the SI to get me those codes or else I'll feed your precious little siblings to my dogs and I'll rape that feisty red head again and again while you watch, sending you back to your father to share your experience just before I kill you in front of his eyes." He spat in her face.

"You are a sadistic bastard and you'll kill me anyway." She said trying to stall everything down.

She had to buy time for Tony, for everyone.

"Don't shit with me, Stark! I am a sadistic bastard and I will do everything I told you unless you do what I say. I promise to kill you fast after that and I'll take care of those children like they are mine." He said giving her a sardonic smirk.

Millie spilt on his face and he threw her down again wiping his face with his T-shirt.

"You got 'till midnight, after that you'll hear her screams from the end of the corridor." He said and left leaving a guard with her.

"So, you're my new assistant." She said but the dark man did not respond.

The young girl got up and walked to her bench taking a rag to clean the wound in her forehead.

She let it down and picked a few pieces of metal to glance at what was hidden beneath it. Its blue glow drew the guard's attention who took a step forward. Millie grabbed a led that lied on the bench and showed to him.

"Sonic screwdriver, Doctor's gift." She said certain the man had not understood a word she'd said.

She grabbed her pen and gathered her designs to work.

Oh, she was working on STK007 alright… with a few modifications, just in case Tony needed a little help.

Tamara looked around as everyone slept.

She could not sleep; she had been working all day long but she could not sleep.

She brought her hand to her skirt and untied it revealing the shining little thing.

It was really beautiful and she was sure she could buy a whole house with it. She caressed it and looked at it in the moonlight that entered the hut.

Why had that kid thrown it away?

He was really weird. He was the boss but he looked so sad and scared, more scared than the kids that broke the rocks.

Why?

Suddenly in the silence of the night she heard a loud noise and a strong light violated the hut. Her mum jumped up, scared that the bad men had come back to take her brother like they had taken her father.

They heard heavy steps approach and the blue light became stronger and stronger. Momma gathered them in her hug grabbing Papa's knife in her palm, hiding it.

"Pepper?" a man said and a huge monster appeared in the entrance. It was huge, black like the night and had blue eyes and a blue heart.

Tamara thought he would eat them alive but he stopped and cocked his head on the side.

"You're not Pepper." He said and reached for his neck revealing a human head.

Her mother gasped and whispered at them to remain calm. It seemed to be some kind of soldier, really big soldier.

But to Tamara he looked familiar. His eyes were scared and sad and familiar. She had seen them before on the face of that little white boy who had thrown the ring.

She opened her fist letting it shine under the blue light and extended her hand to give it to him.

The man took it looking at it with awe. His eyes softened and seemed to freeze getting out of space and time.

"Where did you get that?" he asked her but she didn't understand what he said.

"_White boy" _she said in her language.

"_Show me" _a weird voice answered her coming from the man's chest.


	19. Fight is how we win

**Ok, so, we are two chapter's before this story ends. I appreciate reviews even if it's about a misspelling of a minor character's name, I just happen to like it when you describe your feelings, good or bad.**

**I know you are out there guys and that I hadn't written anything in a long time but Architecture is one demanding school that sucks your life out. I'll be starting on Monday so, I don't think I'll have much time to write again.**

**I do miss writing and reviews as well. (unlike Tony Stark I need an ego boost from time to time xaxa)**

**StarkObsessed I still love you and i will finish this before Monday, just for you! **

**Thank you all!**

* * *

Fight is how we win

Tony walked to the field where the plane was waiting. He was holding a black suitcase on his left arm and his cane on the right. Natasha followed him sharp not willing to leave him alone.

_Thank you for your services sweetheart but I'm doing this alone._

_There's not a chance you will Stark unless you want that damage to your leg to be permanent. _

The door to the back of the plane was open and Tony could distinguish a group waiting for them.

What was going on?

Oh, no, she had done it, hadn't she?

"You called the agency, didn't you Russian minx?" he said as they got closer.

"I did what was best for the mission." She answered in her cold tone and sped up to unite with the rest of the Avengers.

Fury was standing in the entrance looking less than happy.

"Stark!" he said but Tony ignored him and walked straight to the bench to rest.

He had been working out for three hours before the plane was ready to fly.

"This is not your personal case any more; this is a federal case now." Fury said.

Tony put the suit case on his side and stretched his leg.

"It's federal the moment I get my family home." He said and got a small box from his pocket; he took a pill and hid it again.

Banner looked at him worried. Tony smirked at him and winked.

"Don't worry big guy, it's new stuff, you know for the leg." He said but Bruce's worry did not subside.

"Stark, this is serious." Steve said and got a deathly look from Tony.

"You're damn right it's serious. They took my family, they made me believe they were dead and now I find out someone wants to hit US satellite and accuse me of treason." He said and leaned forward to meet Rogers.

"But I'll tell you a little secret hero, I don't care about me and I don't care about that satellite all I care is my family and I will not let you jeopardize their rescue." He whispered but everyone heard him.

"Nobody wants your family to get hurt, Stark." Clint said but Tony did not listen.

"There's a plan, Tony." A very familiar voice said coming out from the pilot's cabin. Tony raised his head and saw Colonel Rhodes walking towards him.

Tony sighed. "You're into this, Rhodey?" he said but his old friend knew him more than well to let his depression get into him.

"We have planned everything, we are going to rescue Pepper and the kids and we're going to get that bastard and throw him in a hole for the rest of his life." Rhodey said standing next to him.

"Ok, let's hear the plan because I don't see how the Hammer-boy here and the big guy over there are not going to give us out and risk their lives." Tony said and added

"No offence buddy." Bruce nodded shrugging his shoulders.

"They'll be distraction." Fury said crossing his arms.

"Rogers, Clint and Romanoff will go in and Colonel Rhodes will watch their back." He added.

Tony looked at his friend and then to the back where the silver suit stood.

"What am I supposed to do?" Tony said knowing where this whole thing was going.

The group looked at him with wide eyes and then glanced at his leg.

"Tony, you can't fight yet, you can barely walk." Bruce said making Natasha snort. Everyone looked at her waiting for an answer.

"Well, as much as I hate to say it, he's done some work with that cane." She said surprising everyone.

"I don't care if you can play kung-fu master with that thing or if you built a new toy to help you play, you're not going to be active in this mission and that's how it's going to be. You either sit here and watch or you sit in a cell and wait." Fury said tired of Tony's behaviour.

Tony shook his head; he didn't like that plan. He had a plan of his own, much better…for him. He could make a few adaptations though; maybe it could be better after all.

"I'll tell you what, I do have a new toy and I can play kung fu master with this thing and I will let you help me, following my plan." He said ending the discussion.

It was night when the plane reached the air space of Zimbabwe. Tony put on his new suit, black like the night cloak that hid him. He grabbed Clint from the collar and along with the rest of the group he flew away where the ring kept transmitting.

They landed next to a river where a few huts where laid here and there.

There were no guards around which surprised them. Could they be wrong? Had the ring changed hands?

No it couldn't, he had read the code clearly, it couldn't be a coincidence.

He followed the signal and entered a hut. There was a woman with two children inside pinned to the far side of it; they looked really scared.

"You're not Pepper." Tony sighed disappointed. Had he been set up again? Was he dragged there on purpose?

He was ready to retreat when the little girl, who looked incredibly like Platypus's girl, opened her hand and gave it to him.

The ring

She said something in a foreign language and Tony turned on the translator.

"White boy." She said. She had been given the ring by a white boy; a boy that looked like him for how did she know that was what he was looking for?

She had seen Edward!

"Show me." Tony said and let the suit translate it.

The three of them got out of the hut and along with Rogers and Romanoff they walked where the little girl led them. It was a big field, full of rocks with only a couple of guards.

"What is this place?" Rogers asked.

"It's where children work." Tamara's mother said.

"Work?" Natasha asked and all three of them nodded.

"We break rocks and then carry them to the river." Tamara said.

"Why?" Rogers asked.

"Isn't it obvious? There's someone here who takes advantage of them and threatens them." Tony said and Tamara's mother nodded.

Tony knelt down before the girl and asked her where she had seen his son.

"They come from the bridge; the boy, a girl and a baby." The girl said and Tony nodded.

"Thank you, go back home and be ready to run if anything happens." Tony said and the small family ran away as the three Avengers walked across the bridge.

Everything was set

Bruce and Thor would cause distraction.

Romanoff, Rogers and him would go in while Clint and Rhodey would watch their backs.

As soon as they would get in, Tony and Natasha would go for the hostages while the others would search for the weapon.

Nobody could see them in the dark. They found an abandoned fortress about half a mile away from the bridge. Six men were guarding the entrance and about four were scanning the area.

Suddenly there was a great crash on the north of the fortress. The guards were alarmed and ran to the entrance. Taking two more men they ran to the sand hills to see what was going on.

The time had come. Tony, Natasha and Steve watched as the four remaining guards were falling down one after the other. The three of them got into the fortress followed by the War machine and Hawkeye.

The gunshots begun before anyone knew it.

The plan was not following Tony's plan.

"Go in." Tony said and flew over the fortress releasing a few mini-missiles to help Rhodes.

"Stark we got a ware house on the north east of your position. Hulk and Thor are on it and I need War machine as well." Fury told him.

"What? I can't lose Rhodey; there are big guns here as well." Tony said seeing a mini canon appearing.

"I did not ask for your permission. Colonel Rhodes it's an order." Fury said and Tony looked at the silver suit dropping Hawkeye and flying away.

"I'll be back the sooner, buddy." Rhodey said but Tony was desperate.

He needed to get more men out and they seemed to be endless. He had to go in, to find Pepper and the kids, to disarm STK007 and to find that bastard.

He couldn't leave Hawkeye all by himself.

"Rogers, change of plans, come out and help Hawkeye." Tony said blocking Fury's frequency.

"What about the weapon?" Rogers asked.

"I'll go in." Tony said and landed in the shadows.

"Jarvis, back up power and detachment." He commanded.

"Sir, the circumstances are extremely dangerous I would not recommend…."

"Detach, I said!" Tony barked and the suit opened in half revealing Ironman's human body. Tony walked out of the suit and it closed again being just an empty cell now. He pressed the right thigh revealing a hidden case for his cane. He took it and pressed a button on the back and the blue triangle lit again.

"Ready to play Ironman, Jarvis?" Tony asked and the suit nodded.

"Always at your service, Sir." The suit responded and flew away to help Hawkeye.

Tony opened the cane just a little letting the silver blade shine under the full moon.

He was alone now. There was no communication between him and the team.

He had planned this all along. Nobody knew but he had programmed Jarvis to run the new suit while he was out of it.

He had used Millie's findings at the basement of the Wayne Enterprises to make new bullet proof clothes. Nobody could ever guess why he was wearing gloves and a jacket while he would be in his suit. Nobody could ever guess what their real purpose was.

He smirked as we walked down the stairs for the dungeons. If he could see his face he was sure he would scare himself to death but he had made his decision. He was going to fight 'till the last drop of his blood hit the ground if it meant he could save his world again.


	20. The Final Battle

The Final Battle

_I left my armor behind and with the silver blade hidden in my hand I walked down to the dark corridors. The blue light from my arc reactor illuminates my way. _

_I hear voices and screams and footsteps coming towards me but I don't see them. _

_I don't see anybody; all I see is the corridor and where it leads._

_They run to me, firing but I don't feel a thing; I've done a good job with the clothes. _

_I see knives shining under my light and I know they come for me. I raise my free hand for defense and I smack them with my black cane. I don't need the blade yet._

_They keep coming and I am surprised I know exactly where to hit. I don't see faces, only shadows moving fas,t in and out of my view. I raise my cane in the air opening my way. _

_I hit a man's throat on the right while I push another on the left. Someone grabs my back but I know all I need to do is touch his neck. My glove electrocutes him. _

_I push him back on the wall to kick a face and I smash a chin with the black piece of wood I keep in my right hand._

_That's how I keep on, fighting and getting everyone out of my way. I can hear a few screams and I'm sure Romanoff is near by. _

_I can't run but I can't stop walking either. My leg hurts and I can feel my heart pounding in my ears. I had to find them before someone blew that place into oblivion._

_I use some more power to blast a small group away and I hit three more without even realizing it. I grab one of them and pin him against the wall._

_He's taller than me and twice as big but I don't care, right now I'm not Tony, I'm not Iron man, I'm more than that and I can do things I could never imagine._

"_Where are they?" I ask him but he doesn't answer. I ask him again using a little bit of my glove to persuade him but he remains silent._

"_I know you can understand me, tell me where they are!" I yell blasting another group that was coming our way._

_It was exhausting; I had made those for man to man battle._

_I let him fall on the ground and he looks tired too. His chest is heavy and moves with great difficulty. I don't pity him; I'm on the verge of killing him if he doesn't answer._

_I take my blade out and point at his chest._

"_Do you have a wife, kids?" I ask him and I really don't know what hit me. He couldn't have a family, an animal like him. However, when I say these words he looks at me and there's something familiar in his eyes._

_Worry, angst, all those things I felt all this time I saw them in this man's eyes._

"_Help me save mine!" I yell. I can't wait any longer._

_He nods and points to my left. "End" he says._

_I walk as fast as I can. My leg is killing me but I would go there even if it meant jumping on one foot. _

_I meet no one on my way there. They had to be the last or the Black Widow was doing a very good job. _

_I pass a metal door heading to the end of the corridor but a scream catches my attention. It's not high pitched so it couldn't be one of my girls but I have a bad feeling about it. _

_I stop right in front of it. I can hear buzzing, like there was a machine in there and someone sobbing. I put my palm on the lock and open it._

_I hear a gasp and I can see a blue light matching my own coming from the back. Next to me there's a man, a guard fallen and ugly burned._

"_Dad?" I hear a long desired voice asking me. The blue light illuminates her face._

_She's lost weight, she looks weak and dirty and I can distinguish a few bruises on her body; but she's alive._

_She's alive!_

"_Millie!" I sigh and I can feel a few tears threatening to come out. I run to her, turning off my gadgets, and I crash her into my arms. She's trembling and crying like a small kid who counts on her dad to fix all that is wrong with the world._

"_Dad, you're here! I… I killed a man." She whispered not even able to pronounce it. _

_I look on the ground and I see the source of the blue light. It looks like the STK007 but it has an arc reactor on it. Millie had probably used it as a weapon._

"_Ssh, don't worry." I try to calm her down as I scan the room and I see no sign of Pepper or the kids. My heart starts pounding again. They are somewhere else._

"_He… he raised his gun at me…I got scared… there were screams coming from outside…" she was mumbling now but I had to keep her there, I needed her with me._

"_You defended your self, that's all." I say even though I know it doesn't help._

"_Come on, we need to find the others. Do you know where they are?" I ask her and pick up the new weapon. As I turn my back I hear her burst into tears._

_Oh, no…_

"_Pepper's somewhere at the end of the corridor but the kids… they're not here." She said her words lost among her tears._

"_What do you mean?" I ask now panicked. How could they not be there?_

"_They were taking them outside, that's how we sent you the message but we… I… told them to run away if they could. They did, I heard they lost them… but… but…" she couldn't alter a word._

_I take her hand and get in the corridor. I curse my self for not keeping contact with the team. My kids could be anywhere in the battle field and I was not so sure they were safe. _

_I turn on my right and reach the end of the corridor. _

_There's nothing here! It's a dead end! No!_

"_Pepper!" I scream again and again. I feel like I'm drowning. _

_Someone grabs my arm and before I can attack Millie enters my view. She has her finger on her mouth telling me to be quiet. Her eyes are still red and she's still shaking but we're both quiet._

_I can hear the fight going on a different location in the labyrinth, I can hear people running and I hear… someone kicking a door._

_We look around and we spot a small metal door even a child would have difficulty passing on our left._

"_Pepper" I gasp and rip the door apart._

"_Tony!" I hear her cry as she falls into my arms and this time I let my tears wet her hair. I can't believe she's right there with me, alive. She's hanging from my neck and I feel like she's going to choke me to death but I don't care. It would be a sweet death. _

"_Oh, Pepper, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I love you." It was all I could say. I didn't even think the words; they came out all by themselves. _

_I stroke her back and help her up. Her eyes are red and swollen and she's lost weight, which even with after-three-kids-Virginia is scary. She's in a lot worse condition than Millie. She has bruises on her throat indicating that someone had tried to choke her. Her clothes are ripped and she has several cuts on her arms._

_I swear I'm going to make that bastard pay._

"_Tony, the kids, we need to find the kids, they're out there!" she says and even though she's crying she reminds me of old everything-under-control Pepper. _

_I lose no time. I grab the death-ray and keeping my girls behind me I walk to the exit._

_I had to find the others now._

_As we walk I see Romanoff flying into the corridor from nowhere. She lands on the opposite wall and instantly touches her ear to ask for back up. She looks towards us and I can barely see her smile before it disappears. She gets up and gets into the room again. _

_We keep on walking and get to the field again. The battle goes on. I can see Rhodey is back and my black suit crashing a few missiles. _

"_Jarvis, package on field." I say to my sleeve. _

"_What's going on, why aren't you inside the suit?" Pepper asks me worried._

"_Don't worry, I'm safe. Jarvis will take you back to base. You'll spot the kids from the chips I've put in their teeth. They should be transmitting now." I say as Mark VII lands next to me._

"_What about you?" she asks crying. Ever the same Pepper!_

"_I got some work to do and I'll be right with you." I say and see them disappearing into the night sky. _

_I walk back in ready to finish this once and for all. _

_I don't have to walk long as I hear someone calling my name._

"_Anthony Edward Stark" It's him, I know it's him before I can even see him. He stands in the dark; hiding but I would recognize his cold, hoarse voice everywhere. The man who almost took everything I had._

"_Summers" I say and I hear him snort. He stands a few feet away from me with his arms crossed in front of his chest._

"_You found me." He says and walks away. I know it's probably a trap but I have to go, I have to follow him. I need to end this once and for all. I will not give him the chance to threaten my family again._

_We get into an empty room. A single lamb hangs from the ceiling strangling to illuminate the dark room. It's as if the darkness swallows the light leaving the poor lamb hanging like a shining ball._

"_This is my kingdom, Stark. That's how I grew up, in the darkness and solitude." He says opening his arms to embrace the shadows._

_I can feel the rage boiling in my blood. I know what he's ready to say but I can't feel any sympathy for him. The last five years I've met hundreds of kids like him but none of them became a terrorist._

"_You can't blame anyone but yourself Markus. It's not my fault, neither your mother's nor Millie's." I say tightening the grip around my cane. His arms drop to his side and he turns slowly to face me. _

"_So, you found out. How does it feel, really, to cause so much pain and never give a damn?" He asks me and I see his face is full of hatred._

"_I've done a lot of things in my life, Markus, but even back then, in my dark years I had no intention to hurt your mother. We were both adults and she knew who I was." I say but it infuriates him more. He storms towards me trying to hit me but he's so blinded by his hatred I can easily avoid him._

"_We were fine just the two of us. Then one night she comes and tells me she's met someone who will take us out of our misery but all I saw the months that followed was my mum getting bigger and depressed. She was sure you would help us since she carried your child but you gave her a check and threw her away." He says and looks calm but I know he's not. He's looking for the right moment to strike and thus we're moving in a circle._

"_She tried to find you again and again but you had disappeared. She had a difficult pregnancy, she stopped working, the money you gave us vanished into hospital bills for YOUR child and then… she died." He said and I felt his eyes throwing a thousand daggers at me._

"_It was not my fault, Markus, I knew nothing about it." I tried to explain but he didn't listen._

"_Liar!" he yelled "I went through hell because of you!" he added. Now his breath was quick and his pupils were dilated. He was in ecstasy._

"_I had to spend five long years with a family that took advantage of me! I worked all day long for nothing! Then I ran and I slept in the streets, did everything I had to survive because that's what I do I survive." He said and attacked me but I avoided him._

"_I hadn't thought about you until the day my buddy, Franc met you. That's when I remembered who was responsible for what had happened to me. You were lucky in Afghanistan. I had had a fight with my superior officer and I was sent back to the states. But I was meant to wait to make you suffer like you deserved." He said._

_He was hurt; he was more than hurt he was broken._

"_My family did not hurt you; if anything you should have kidnapped me, you should have tortured me." I said and he laughed hysterically._

"_I know what hurts the most, Stark and that's losing your family, not able to help them. You managed to fool everyone with your shining armor but not me, you're the same underneath. You're damaged, bad material, rotten to the very soul." He said._

"_What about Millie? She's your sister." I said trying to understand. I wanted to understand before I acted, I am not a cold blood killer._

_He shook his head violently._

"_I gave her a chance and she lost it. She's not my sister she's your daughter!" He said and laughed again._

"_I had the perfect plan. I would take my revenge and solve my life's problem in one move. You were going to be trialed for treason for a weapon made by your own child. You would spend your years in prison until the people you saved would ask for your death and I would take over the company as the guardian of the little Starks that were once lost in the ocean by the plane accident. And just before you died you would see them, you would know they were alive and I kept them, I raised your children and they hated you because you killed their mother. You would feel the pain 'till your bone and the whole world would know who Tony Stark really was." He said._

_I saw him take off his jacket and his guns leaving them on the ground._

"_It's over Markus." I said but I knew he wouldn't give up so easily._

"_I may have failed but I know who you are and that you've been planning my death all this time." He says and the truth strikes me._

_I have and that was the reason I had come back. _

_Suddenly I remember the words from my dream._

"_Murderer"_

_I was not a murderer._

"_I have but I'm not going to kill you, Markus, I'm not a killer. You are the only connection Millie could have with her mother and I'm not taking that away from her." I say but he's walking towards me._

_I tight my grip around the blade; when did I take it out? _

_I was not going to kill him…_

"_You can't fool me Stark; you are an egomaniac bastard who cares only about himself. You don't care about other people; you cause pain and let people die for nothing. You helped my father die with your guns when he was in the field. You have a black soul and I'm going to prove that to everyone." He said and I could not imagine what would happen next._

_He grabbed my sword and stabbed himself._

_He didn't scream; he didn't wince; he just stood there with his eyes looking straight to mine._

_He smirked and blood came out of his mouth. I let the blade and took a step back letting his lifeless body fell down. _

_I looked at his dead body but my brain could not register the incident._

_It hadn't happened._

_I looked at my hands knowing I was not responsible and yet I felt guilty._

_The bloody bastard had done it; he had filled me with guilds for the rest of my life._

_Suddenly I felt someone looking at me. I looked on my right and saw Rogers. The look on his face said it all. He thought I had killed him in cold blood just like I had threatened to do; I did not explain; I didn't want to. I threw my cane away and limped to him. All I wanted to do was be with my family._

_He carried me out and I got back into my suit of armor. I felt good being back inside my cell. Fury started barking at my ear saying something about me disappearing and leaving a computer to do my job. I couldn't care less. Jarvis says Pepper and Millie are safe on the base and that I have a phone call from Jackson._

_I had no time for him; I need to find the babies. Apparently Markus had been smart enough to destroy their chips._

"_Fuck, Stark, will you answer your damn phone?" I hear Jackson's voice screaming at my ear. Where had that come from? I hadn't given permission to Jarvis to pass me the call._

"_Even your computer is smarter than you." I hear him say and I instantly wonder if Jarvis broke the protocol and how dangerous it could be._

"_Jackson, it's not the time." I say as I fly off to the sky to scan the area. _

"_Oh, it's time already!" He says and I hear Marie, Edward and Logan screaming 'Daddy" through the line. _

_I lost my balance for a while and I almost hit the ground before I took off again._

"_Marie? Edward? Logan?" I said feeling the tears coming from the depths of my soul._

"_You should answer your damn phone, Stark!" I hear Jackson say and I laugh a little._

_I had completely forgotten Jackson taught here, in Zimbabwe. I had no idea he was near by. There had to be a God for him to find the kids. _

_I have Jarvis spot the phone call and I call Rhodey to follow me. I'm there in no time._

_They're all out waiting for me. I land and lose my helmet the moment I hit the ground._

_They look tired and dirty but they are ok. _

"_Daddy!" they cry and run towards me. I hug them carefully not to smash them and I curse under my breath I cannot feel them over my suit._

"_Oh my God, you're ok, you're alive." I keep repeating not able to let them go. I see Jackson coming towards me holding Logan in his arms. He's ready to cry but being the brave little man he is he hides it. _

"_Thank you, Jackson. I can't believe you found them." I say and he cracks a smile. _

_He's very different of what I remember. He's a bit darker under the faint light of the lamb. He's lost some weight and his long red hair is now cut short and not very masterfully. _

"_You should thank the people here; they found them and brought them to me." He said and I remembered the little girl with the ring. Edward raised his head at that and looked at me. He looked very mature._

"_Daddy, we need to help these people." He said and I nodded._

"_We will, I promise." I said and I did the moment I got back to the USA. I built a school and founded an Organization helping all those people get a job and live a normal life. No one would ever threaten them again._


	21. Life is but a dream

**Last chapter!**

* * *

Life is but a dream

The sun is rising slowly over the sea. The sky changes its colours welcoming the new day. The waves stroke the rocks ever so lightly producing a calming melody.

Tony is standing at the edge of the balcony watching the sun rise. Everything is calm, so calm and quiet he can hear his family breathing as they sleep back in the house.

He can't sleep. He's afraid that if he closes his eyes he'll lose them again. So he doesn't sleep, he stays awake and watches over them.

His phone rings to spoil the beautiful moment but he smiles as he sees the caller I.D.

"How's my big girl?" Tony asks Millie.

"Tired" she answers and he smiles. It had been almost two weeks since Africa and everything were slowly going back to normal.

As normal as their lives could be anyway.

"Did I wake you up? What time is it there?" She asks him and he sees his watch.

"It's half past six, I'm out having breakfast, everybody else is asleep." He says taking a glimpse back inside, seeing the slim silhouette of his wife passing by, probably on her way to the bathroom.

"Ok, so, how's Greece?" she asked him.

"Really nice and calm" he said thinking in comparison to the last time he had visited the country. He had spent a week partying non stop and he didn't really remembered much.

This time was different. As soon as Pepper was out of the hospital he booked tickets to Athens and then Rhodes. It was the trip they would have on their own but after what happened they would never leave the kids out of their sight. They had rented a small traditional house in a really small village by the sea. Pepper wanted the trip to be as simple and quiet as possible and that was what Tony had offered.

"I wish you were here with us." He said sighing.

"Oh, dad, you know how things are. We went missing for a few weeks and the world came crashing down. I got as much as a welcome hug from Riley and then I was shoved into a room full of paperwork. My phone is ringing all the time and there's so much damage control Railway could do. God, I hate press conference!" she sighed and Tony smiled again. She sounded like good old Millie.

She had been under shock when she had found out Markus had been her brother. She had locked herself in her basement and talked to no one for almost a week. They had been really scared that week but she was getting over it. However she kept her distances from the rest of the family.

"You know, just stick to the cards." He said she burst into laughter. It was good to hear her laugh; it was good to hear her in general.

"Ok, I'll remember that. I have to go now but I'll call later when everybody is up." She said.

"Ok, I love you honey." He said.

"I love you too dad." She said and his grin reached his ear. They had to go through hell to get that reply from her.

"Did I hear well? Did you just tell your daughter to stick to the cards?" Pepper said walking towards him.

"Good morning; why up so early?" He asked her as she kissed him and got lost in his arms. She was ever so fragile. She had gained some weight while they were there and the sun had brought life back to her cheeks but she was still exhausted and alert.

He knew it would never go away.

"I heard you talk to the phone." She said and kissed him again.

"Yeah, well it was Millie, she'll call again; breakfast?" he asks pointing at the small metal table where his breakfast lied untouched.

A cup of black coffee, some toast and a jar of honey

"Tony you should eat, the doctor said…" she started again but he cut her off.

"I'm eating… with you. I'll go bring some more coffee and toasts. Do you want anything else?" He asked her as he walked back inside.

"Butter." She said and he nodded. Tony walked to the small kitchen and got a tray with Pepper's breakfast. His limp had increased to the point that it was barely noticeable. On his way out he stopped by the bedroom and peeked inside. The kids were sound asleep.

He got out putting the tray on the table and took his seat opposite Pepper.

"Thank you, Mr. Stark. How's your leg?" she asked him. Tony rubbed his knee lightly. When Pepper found out what he had done that night the plane had crashed she had been screaming at him for over an hour and then she had been crying in his arms for another two.

"Better, I guess I shouldn't have walked so much yesterday." He said sipping his coffee. He was going well. The heat, the sand and the daily swimming in the sea were good for his leg. He had stopped the medication and all he had to do was wait.

"Will we go to the castle today?" she asked him and he arched an eyebrow.

"Again, Mrs. Stark? Have you fallen in love with a knight and you forgot to tell me?" He asked her making her laugh. He loved it when she laughed.

"As a matter of fact I have. He's handsome and smart and he takes care of me, my knight in shining armor." She said and sat on his laps to kiss him. Tony smiled against her lips and let the moment take him.

"Pepper, I was thinking, would you like to stay here for ever?" he asked her taking her aback.

"What do you mean?" she asked him.

"Things here are so calm and safe and nobody knows us." He said thinking how weird it was for him the first few days that no one recognized him in the small village. He came to enjoy that; being just Tony.

There was no one there that wanted to kill them or kidnap them or steal their company. They lived in a small house, too small for him, quite spacious for the owner. They woke up to the sound of waves every morning. They ate breakfast and then they walked to the small village for supplies. People were always smiling at them and saying good morning. Old ladies were sitting in front of their houses talking or taking care of their beautiful gardens. Men were gathering at the traditional café playing cards or checkers and talking about politics. Some were waiting for someone to call them for a job while most of them were retired. Several kids were running and playing at the small square.

"Tony I don't know what you are thinking but I'm sure I'm not going to like it." Pepper said trying to leave but he kept her there, on his laps.

"Think about it; nobody knows you're alive, SHIELD won't tell a thing and nobody is going to care if I go missing. We could stay here…" he said and Pepper looked at him with her eyes wide open.

"…hidden. Tony, I'm not going to hide from anyone. We won't change our lives because there are one hundred and some odd lunatics out there who want to hurt us." She said raising her voice a bit but she got it back down realizing the kids were still sleeping.

"Pepper, you don't understand, this is our chance to have a normal life. I'll quit SHIELD, the kids can go to school here and we'll be just another family that moved here. Tony told me that there are a lot of families coming back from Athens or Europe…" he said and she sighed soundly. She got up and put her hands on her hips ready to lecture him.

"Oh, so that's what this is about; Tony talked you into it." She said being really upset. She didn't like Tony at all, mostly because he was getting her husband drank. He was the owner of the only tavern just out the village. They ate there almost every night, he had a very good local cuisine with fish and shrimps and meat, anything your heart desired. He was Greek but he had lived in the US for many years. He had had a tavern in Astoria but after his father's death he had decided to come back home.

He hadn't recognized them, mostly because he didn't expect someone like Tony Stark to appear in his small village but all it took was one night for the two Tonies to get together. He was a merry guy and liked to party. There was always cheerful music in his place and a lot of booze. That's how Tony, Tony Stark became familiar with ouzo. They'd spent hours drinking, sip by sip as its used, eating octopus under the sun and discussing everything, from sports to global politics. They became buddies pretty fast and they even went fishing which, much to Pepper's surprise, Tony found it relaxing and exciting.

The last couple of times she had heard the tavern owner talking with her husband about the situation in the country and their small village. Things were tough for everyone, it was a common secret, and it was even harder for those that lived in the big city. The small village that was once resident only by old people was now filled with families that could no longer live in the city and came to be supported by their parents. Tony was always sensitive and had come to be very protective after their kidnap but hide, she would never think about that.

"No, I thought about it. Pepper it's all my fault, I didn't stick to the cards if I had, things would be different now." He said watching her as she sat across him again.

"No, Tony, things would not be different. You are not just a Tony that likes fishing, drinking and dancing under the moonlight with his friends and family, you are Tony Stark with everything it entails." She said but Tony's face said she'd make it worse.

"I could be." He whispered.

"Honey, I didn't marry a Tony, I married you and I knew the danger I was getting into the moment I walked down the beach to you on our wedding day." She said reaching for his hand.

"You were a wonderful bride." He complimented her and she smiled.

"Thank you but Tony we won't hide. We'll live our lives the way we want to and not how everyone else does. If you want to sit here and drink with Tony and Stavros all night long and lay on your back in the sea I get it but it won't last long. I know you honey, you'll miss Jarvis pretty soon and you'll want to burry your face in your machines to invent something mind blowing." She said smiling making him smile too.

"I do miss Jarvis." He admitted and rubbed her hand.

"I know it honey."

"So you don't want to stay here and swim naked all day long?" He asked smirking.

"Tony!" she said smacking his arm.

"Ok, it's a pity though because I already bought the house." He said leaving her speechless.

"When?"

"Riley owes loyalty to me too. I sign his paycheck." He said and they both laughed.

"I like it here, we can come for holidays in summer, besides the kids have already made some friends." Pepper said looking at the sea.

"You'd think children would have problem speaking English." He said eating a toast.

"Are you kidding me? Your kids already speak better Greek than we'll ever do." She said.

"I could speak Greek." Tony said and after a moment of silence they both laughed.

They ate in silence and then watched the waves as they hit the rocks.

"So will we go to the castle?" Pepper asked him again.

"After swimming" Tony said and she nodded.

"Stavros invited us to a feast. It's in a village half an hour from here." Tony said.

"Is it today?" Pepper asked him.

"Yes"

"Will there be ouzo?" she asked him and he shook his head but she didn't buy it.

"Ok, there'll be wine but you know me Pepper, I've changed, I don't get drunk. I just blend in." He said and she smiled.

"Ok, besides I like the way you strangle to follow the steps of syrtaki and other Greek dances." She said hiding her smile.

"You mean the way I succeed." He said pretty serious but she didn't argue.

"Ok, Mr. Zorbas, whatever you say." She said and lied back holding his hand enjoying the silence until the kids woke up.

Life was back again.

Their fight had just begun.

But until they start again they could just lay there and get lost in the sound of waves and wind that fought with the solid rocks.

* * *

**The end**

_**Author's note: I put this last chapter in my country because I felt like I had to. I don't know what you hear or what you think about us but I felt like I should give a snap of what's going on, like I tried to do with Africa. Things are not well, not here not anywhere and we should at least not ignore it. If Tony was real he would smack the face of every drug dealer or abuser, he would feed the weak and protect the innocent and every corrupted politician would be behind bars. Unfortunately we don't live in a perfect world and Iron man doesn't exist but it doesn't hurt to give it a thought every once in a while.**_

_**Besides the world changed from those that dared to dream of it as a better place.**_

_**I hope I didn't spoil your mood and if you disagree or really hate me right now take a moment and think why. Then you have my permission to give me bad and heated reviews. **_

_**I love you all; hope and piece to the world!**_


End file.
